Colombia Follows Peers and Hikes Tariffs on China’s Cheap Steel

Colombia became the latest Latin American country to raise tariffs on Chinese steel, as producers complain of the threat to local jobs from cheap imports.

The Andean nation imposed an additional 30% tariff on wire rods coming from countries with which it doesn’t have a trade agreement, Trade Minister Luis Carlos Reyes said Monday in a post on X.

The Oct. 18 decree boosts the tariff to 35%, the maximum allowed under World Trade Organization rules, and will affect imports from countries including China and Russia.

A rolling machine releases a set of steel rods at the Siderurgica de Occidente SAS steel plant in Yumbo, Colombia

Photographer: Jair F. Coll/Bloomberg

“A technical investigation was carried out that showed that those imports were ...