QUITO, May 8 (Reuters) – The Andean Community ordered Colombia and Ecuador to lift all measures restricting trade between the two countries, the bloc said late on Thursday.
The Community ruled on requests from both nations after Ecuador raised tariffs on imports from Colombia to 100%, prompting a retaliatory response from Colombia, which imposed phased tariff hikes of up to 75% on some goods.
The multilateral body gave the two countries 10 business days to withdraw the measures in place.
Earlier this year, Ecuador’s President Daniel Noboa imposed tariffs on Colombian imports, including electricity and medicines, eventually raising them to 100% as of May 1, arguing that his neighbor was not doing enough to combat drug trafficking along their roughly 586-km shared border and citing a wide trade deficit.
Colombian President Gustavo Petro rejected the accusations, and his government responded by suspending electricity exports and last week formalizing differentiated tariffs of 35%, 50% and 75% on around 190 Ecuadorian products.
Colombia and Ecuador governments did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
(Reporting by Alexandra Valencia and Nelson Bocanegra; Editing by Susan Fenton and Chizu Nomiyama)
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