How Trump tariffs could threaten Latin America’s climate efforts

Slower economic growth, tariff chaos could hold back clean energy projects

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UNFCCC COP16, Cancun, Mexico.

(Michael Molinski is a senior economist at Trendline Economics. He’s worked for Fidelity, Charles Schwab and Wells Fargo, and previously as a foreign correspondent and editor for Bloomberg News and MarketWatch.)

MEXICO CITY (Callaway Climate Insights) — Already facing weaker growth this year, Latin America’s economic forecasts could slow even further if President Donald Trump continues to increase tariffs for products coming out of the region. And that could also impede its collective efforts to battle climate change.

Colombia’s 24-hour trade war with the United States last month was just one example, when Trump threatened to spike tariffs in response to Colombian President Gustavo Petro’s order to block planes from the United States that carried deportees of Colombian citizens from the U.S.

Petro quickly backed down and allowed the planes to land, thus avoiding a trade war, which would have cost Americans to pay more for their coffee, bananas, roses, minerals and other Colombian products.