How money laundering inflates US-Colombia trade statistics
Criminal money flowing through regular trade channels
by Adriaan Alsema October 14, 2022
US authorities have registered more than $30 billion in imports from Colombia over the past decade that don’t appear in the South American country’s export statistics. The discrepancy in the trade partners’ statistics is the equivalent of more than 19% of the $157.9 billion in Colombian imported goods reported by the US Census Bureau (USCB) in the past decade. The USCB doesn’t reported imported services, which implies that the discrepancy could be considerably bigger.
How to explain the discrepancy?
According to tax agency DIAN, Colombia’s total exports to the US were worth $127.5 billion between 2012 and 2021. This is $30.4 billion less than the imported goods reported by the USCB in the same period. According to the US Trade Representative (USTR), goods made up only 75% of American imports from Colombia in 2019.
Including services, American imports from Colombia had a total value of $18.7 billion, the USTR boasts on its website. What doesn’t make sense is that Colombia’s total exports to the US in 2019 were worth a little more than $11.5 billion, according to the DIAN.
Gold and cocaine
Colombia’s tax agency said last month that its customs division had flagged more than 500 companies that were suspected of sending invoices for fictitious goods and services abroad since 2012. A large number of the companies flagged by the DIAN were registered traders in precious metals like gold.
More:
https://colombiareports.com/how-money-laundering-inflates-us-colombia-trade-statistics/