IPIALES, Colombia: Hundreds of truck drivers waited for hours in miles-long lines to cross the border between Colombia and Ecuador as reciprocal tariffs loomed.
Ecuador this month said it would impose 30 percent tariffs on dozens of products from Colombia, with Ecuadoran President Daniel Noboa accusing his neighbor of not doing enough to combat drug trafficking along their shared border.
Colombia responded with a matching tariff and said it was suspending energy sales to Ecuador. The reciprocal tariffs are set to take effect February 1.
The maneuvers have concerned those who haul goods across the border, and truckers attempting to enter Ecuador with Colombian goods on Friday formed long lines stretching to the southern Colombia border city of Ipiales.
The truckers feel “uncertainty because we don’t know what’s going to happen,” Alvaro Jaramillo, a Colombian truck driver with 18 years of experience, told AFP.
