Foreign Trade and Customs Law in Colombia: Insights from Carolina Acosta Ramos

Academic Foundations and International Trade Specialization

Acosta Ramos holds a law degree from the Universidad Externado de Colombia and a specialization in customs law from the same institution. Her educational credentials also include an LL.M. in International Legal Studies with an emphasis on International Commercial Law and International Business from the American University Washington College of Law in the United States. Furthermore, she is a World Trade Organization (WTO) scholarship recipient who completed specialized courses in international trade, customs procedures, and dispute settlement procedures at the WTO, as documented in her faculty biography at the Universidad Externado de Colombia.

Public Sector Experience and Free Trade Agreement Negotiations

Before stepping into her current ministerial post, Acosta Ramos accumulated significant operational experience across multiple trade and export agencies. She served as a legal advisor in the Commercial Office of Colombia in Washington, United States, and worked as a trade negotiator for the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Tourism. In that capacity, she helped negotiate the customs procedures and trade facilitation chapters for Free Trade Agreements between Colombia and the United States, Canada, the European Union, the European Free Trade Association (EFTA), and the Andean Community (CAN), according to biographical records provided by the Universidad Externado de Colombia.

Her public sector resume also includes a tenure as an advisor for Proexport, now known as Procolombia. Additionally, she has consulted for international organizations such as the Inter-American Development Bank (BID) and represented initiatives for the Global Alliance for Trade Facilitation—sponsored and led by the World Economic Forum (WEF), the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC), and the Center for International Private Enterprise (CIPE).

Corporate Advisory and Academic Contributions

Alongside her public service career, Acosta Ramos maintains an active footprint in legal education and private consulting. She serves as a professor in the Fiscal Law Department at the Universidad Externado de Colombia and acts as a liaison to the Inter-American Center of Tax Administrations (CIAT), per university records. She advises national and multinational corporations on regulatory matters, acts as an invited speaker at domestic and international forums, and has authored several book chapters covering Colombian tax law, customs law, and exchange regimes.