LatinNews Daily - 10 June 2026

*Colombia’s ministry of trade, industry, and tourism has issued a decree repealing the 30% tariff on many Ecuadorean goods that was imposed as part of a trade war started by Ecuador’s President Daniel Noboa in January, in response to Colombia’s alleged failure to confront criminal groups in the border region. The decree, which is dated 5 June, was issued nearly a month after the Comunidad Andina (CAN) trade bloc demanded that Colombia and Ecuador lift their tariffs. Noboa had already announced a lifting of Ecuador’s tariffs two weeks ago, but portrayed this as an agreement he had reached with far-right Colombian presidential candidate Abelardo de la Espriella (Defensores de la Patria). This triggered accusations of electoral interference from Iván Cepeda, the continuity candidate for President Gustavo Petro’s left-wing Pacto Histórico coalition in the 21 June run-off election. The CAN’s secretary general, Gustavo Gutiérrez, was cited in the media as saying yesterday that the lifting of tariffs “is very good news because it means that the two countries are listening to the Andean rules, they’ve fulfilled their obligations as Andean countries by applying the [tariff] liberation programme, which is one of the backbones of our region”.