Tuesday’s protest at a border crossing brought together Colombian and Ecuadorian truckers and merchants as tensions mounted over an escalating trade war marked by reciprocal tariffs. Protesters said the 30% levies are harming the economies of border provinces and warned they would also affect businesses including energy companies on both sides of the boundary.
Ecuador’s move began after President Daniel Noboa announced 30% tariffs on Colombian goods last month, citing what he described as gaps in Colombia’s efforts to curb cocaine flows across their shared border. Noboa, who has sought closer ties with the Trump administration, described the tariffs as a “security tax” and said they would remain in place until Colombia took “firm actions” against drug cartels, according to the account of his statements.
Colombia responded by imposing 30% tariffs on dozens of Ecuadorian goods, including rice and car parts. Colombia also said it would stop selling electricity to Ecuador, a country that relies heavily on hydroelectric power and suffered serious power outages in 2024, as the dispute entered a reciprocal phase.
Ecuadorian transportation workers association president Carlos Bastidas told reporters the levies are counterproductive and said the protest was intended to push both presidents to remove the measures. “Tariffs ‘generate crises, they don’t help the economy,” said Bastidas, adding that “with this protest we are hoping that both presidents eliminate those measures” and establish mechanisms for dialogue.
The tariffs took effect Feb. 1, and the fallout has quickly reached border-area commerce even though the two countries are not each other’s main trading partners. The trade relationship nevertheless supports companies and jobs in border cities, where both countries produce overlapping categories of goods such as coffee, flowers, bananas and oil.
In Colombia’s border city of Ipiales, Edison Mena, president of a truckers association, said 38% of the city’s economy depends on commerce with Ecuador. He presented the protest as a demand for policy changes that would reduce disruption for businesses relying on cross-border movement of goods and supplies.
The tariff dispute has also unfolded alongside heightened security concerns in Ecuador. Critics of Noboa have argued that he launched the trade war to cover up shortcomings by his own government, pointing to the context of crime statistics released by Ecuador’s Interior Ministry.
Ecuador’s Interior Ministry published crime figures showing a homicide rate of 50 murders per 100,000 residents in 2025, described as the highest in the nation’s recent history. The account said Ecuador’s homicide rate has quintupled since 2020 as drug gangs from Mexico, Colombia and other countries have competed for control of Ecuadorian ports and the country has become a major transit point for cocaine produced in Colombia and Peru.
The border protest underscored how quickly trade policy can become a flash point where security disputes and economic costs intersect, with businesses and transport workers asking for an end to the tariffs and a renewed channel for negotiation between the two presidents.