After the Earthquake: Colombia Asks Trump to Suspend Tariffs

Colombia, experiencing one of the strongest earthquakes of the past century, is appealing to the international community and its allies for help. The country’s president Abelardo de la Espriella US leader Donald Trump held talks with and asked him to temporarily suspend tariffs on Colombian products while the consequences of the disaster are addressed.

The Colombian head of state announced this on his official page on the X network, formerly Twitter.

“Our entrepreneurs’ situation must be eased”

According to de la Espriella, suspending tariffs on goods entering the US market is vital for the national economy affected by the natural disaster:

• Goal: To ease, even slightly, the situation of Colombian entrepreneurs and producers facing difficult times as a result of the earthquake;

• Details of the conversation: The president of Colombia noted that he had a 10-minute phone call with Donald Trump and that the US leader personally expressed his condolences over the tragedy;

• Tariff issue: At the end of July, official Washington raised tariff rates on many Colombian goods from 10 percent to 12.5 percent ;

The Second-Strongest Disaster in 100 Years: Casualties and Destruction

The earthquake that struck western Colombia on August 10, measuring 7.4 magnitude caused enormous damage:

• Deaths and missing people: According to Colombia’s National Unit for Disaster Risk Management, as of Saturday morning, the death toll had reached 294 people while another 320 people were considered missing;

• Injured and affected people: The earthquake, whose epicenter was in the San José del Palmar area of the Chocó Department, injured 3,935 people and the total number of affected residents exceeded 115,000 ;

• Housing infrastructure: As a result of the tremors, 14,000 homes were completely destroyed, while another 81,506 houses were seriously damaged; remote and hard-to-reach settlements were particularly badly affected.

Search-and-rescue and recovery operations are currently continuing in the country, while the government is seeking international trade concessions to mitigate the economic shock.

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