Elections in the United States: what would change for Colombia with Donald Trump or Kamala Harris?

This Tuesday, November 5, the United States elections will be held, in which citizens will define their new president between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump. Would anything change for Colombia, depending on who the new occupant of the White House is? The president of the Colombian-American Chamber, María Claudia Lacouture, tried to resolve this doubt on Noticias Caracol live.

Lacouture initially highlighted that “Colombia and the United States have had a stable agenda, which has been supported by Congress in a bipartisan manner. It is very relevant because the binational relationship has been maintained over the years, regardless of who reaches the White House.”, emphasizing the economic situation and providing precise figures in this regard.

The professional indicated that exports to the US represent 29% of the country’s total shipments and are growing 8%; Regarding tourism, 28% of the total visitors who arrive to our nation are from the North American country; 43% of the investments that come to the country are from the US, and while investment decreases in Colombia by 29%, that coming from the US decreases by 5.3%; 53% of the remittances that arrive in these lands come from that country, he noted.

The relationship “would be similar, but it will have different levels of issues depending on who is left. For example, in the commercial area, there will be opportunities with both. What is important is where we direct these proposals to increase trade issues depending on who arrives,” explained the president of the Colombian-American Chamber.

“Kamala Harris will have continuity in the processes of the Biden government in terms related to migration, trade, international relations. With Trump we will see an issue more focused on force as a deterrent mechanism. Security and migration with deterrence issues will be very important through force,” he said.

Regarding trade, Lacouture noted, “for Kamala Harris it is a complementation in certain sectors, while for Trump it is tariffs, increasing them from 10 to 20%; a more tense relationship with China where the 60% tariff will be increased on all products sold by China, but there There are opportunities for Colombia”, as it has a “revealed comparative advantage over China in 108 products. We have variables to be able to work with. The important thing is to understand each person’s policies to be able to find those opportunities and make a proposal.”

However, the professional stated that “it is important that the relationship between Colombia and the United States not only depend on the White House, but also that there is a bipartisan relationship in Congress.”

“I think that From both of them you can get good opportunities, from both of them there will be challenges. If you look, in the case of Kamala Harris she is making a proposal to generate protectionism related to the agricultural sector and in energy transition issues, as well as telecommunications. From Trump’s point of view, there is evidently a difference in ideology where we can find common ground, such as migration. “Not to get into the discussion of Venezuela, but rather how we can make a proposal that will stop migration to the US,” he indicated.