The New Nearshoring Giant You Aren't Paying Attention To

Added: 2026-05-27

[00:00:00]Apple makes iPhones in India. Nike makes shoes in Vietnam. Tesla builds cars in China. And every single flight from those factories to the United States is 15 hours minimum with a 12-hour time difference. Colombia is 3 and 1/2 hours from Miami in the same time zone. So, why is Colombia getting almost none of this? That's the question we're going to answer today. And by the end of this video, I think you're going to see one of the biggest economic opportunities in Latin America that nobody is talking about. Hey, I'm Matt, the Americano. I make videos about visas, lifestyle, and what it's really like to live abroad.

[00:00:36]Today, we're doing something different.

[00:00:38]This isn't a moving to Colombia video.

[00:00:40]This is an economics video.

[00:00:41]Specifically, it's about a global shift called nearshoring, the biggest reorganization of supply chains since China joined the World Trade Organization, and why Colombia, the country I've called home for over 5 years, is positioned to win a much bigger piece of this than it currently is. If you're a Colombian who cares about jobs and growth, this is for you.

[00:01:03]If you're an American executive thinking about your supply chain, this is also for you. And if you're an investor looking for the next Mexico, this is definitely for you.

[00:01:15]>> [music] >> Let's start with what nearshoring actually is. For 30 years, the rule was simple: make it where labor is cheapest, ship it where it sells. That's how China became the factory of the world. That's how Vietnam became your sneaker. That's how India became your iPhone. Then a few things happened in a row. The US-China trade war started in 2018. COVID broke supply chains in 2020. Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022. The Red Sea shipping lanes got attacked. And every single American CFO had the same thought: my supply chain is 15 hours away on the other side of the planet, and I have no idea what's going to happen next.

[00:01:57]Nearshoring is the response. Move production closer to the market. Trade some labor cost savings for resilience, speed, and predictability. Get out of the 15-hour flight, 12-hour time difference business. And the country that has captured most of this wave, by a long way, is Mexico. Now, let's be honest about Mexico. Mexico has done a fantastic job. They captured this wave because they were ready for it. The USMCA trade agreement gave them tariff-free access to the US market.

[00:02:26]Their northern industrial corridors, Nuevo Leon, Chihuahua, Queretaro, were already running at scale. They produce more than 120,000 engineers a year. And in 2024 alone, Mexico pulled in roughly $37 with most of it going into manufacturing. That's the good news for Mexico. Here's the part the headlines don't lead with. A growing share of that money isn't new investment. It's reinvested earnings from companies already there. New entrants are slowing down. The northern corridors are filling up. Manufacturing wages have climbed to roughly $5 an hour, fully burdened.

[00:03:05]Cartel violence in some regions is now a board-level conversation.

[00:03:09]So, American companies are looking around and asking, "Where else? Where else is close, friendly, in our time zone, and not yet saturated?" That's the question Colombia should be answering.

[00:03:20]If you're a Colombian, you should be asking your elected officials, "Why aren't they reaching out to these companies?" You have an upcoming election. Now's the time. Let me lay these out one by one, because most of them are not obvious unless you live here. Same time zone as the US East Coast. Bogota is on Eastern Time with no daylight savings. That means real-time collaboration with US headquarters during the work day. You can have a 10:00 a.m. call in New York and a 10:00 a.m. call in Bogota with the same people. Try by that with a factory in Vietnam. 3 and 1/2 hours to Miami, executives can do day trips, quality control teams can be on site by lunch. A part can be on a plane in the morning and on a US assembly line that afternoon. That's a logistical reality no Asian country can offer. And here's another thing. There's a free trade agreement with the United States that's existed since 2012. It's called the Columbia Trade Promotion Agreement. Most Colombian goods enter the US tariff-free under it, the same way Mexican goods do under USMCA. Most American CFOs don't know this exists. They should.

[00:04:25]Manufacturing wages that are genuinely competitive. After years of peso depreciation, Colombian manufacturing wages are in the same range as parts of Asia. Colombia hasn't had a coup in living memory. Power has changed hands peacefully across left, right, and center. That kind of political stability is undervalued until you're trying to plan a 15-year manufacturing investment.

[00:04:48]Roughly 70% of Colombia's electricity comes from hydropower. For multinationals with sustainability mandates and scope two emission targets, that's a real selling point you don't get in most low-cost manufacturing geographies. Colombia's zonas francas already offered reduced corporate tax rates, customs benefits, and streamlined import-export procedures. The legal infrastructure for nearshoring exists.

[00:05:12]It just hasn't been marketed. Colombia's median age is around 31. The country graduates tens of thousands of engineers and technical professionals every year.

[00:05:22]The talent pipeline is real. It just needs scale. That's the positive case.

[00:05:26]Now, let me give you the honest one.

[00:05:28]Okay, so a quick one before we continue.

[00:05:30]If you're in Bogota or you'll be passing through, we've got two Bogota Nomads dinners on the calendar, and here they are. Thursday, June 4th, SKR in Chico.

[00:05:41]They have ramen, lots of different ramen options, lots of other uh if you aren't into ramen person, uh they have shrimp, langostina, uh carne, uh steaks, uh lots of uh actually, I tried this croqueta. Best croqueta ever. Oh.

[00:05:59]Amazing.

[00:06:01]Really good tapas, yeah. We'll wait for you June 4th. It's uh Thursday at 6:00 p.m. Most dishes are around $14. There are two of them that are $20. The place seats 60 people. We have the entire place reserved. Here's how this one came together. David, one of the owners, reached out and invited me to try the place. So, I went, I ate, and now I'm bringing all of you, which is probably the cleanest endorsement I can give a restaurant. Sunday, June 28th, La Artesana del Pan in Santa Barbara. This is, no exaggeration, my favorite pizza in Bogota. We're running this one a little differently. Most people show up solo, and a whole pizza isn't a one-person job. So, it's all you can eat pizza plus a soft drink or water, $15 flat fee. Seats 45 people. Additional drinks can be purchased directly, including beer and wine. Both nights start at 6:00 p.m. Now, about urgency.

[00:06:58]Our last dinner, 73 seats, sold out in 14 days. I'm not manufacturing scarcity.

[00:07:05]That's just what happened. So, if you want in on either of these, the link is in the description. Book your seats now.

[00:07:11]Don't message me in 3 weeks asking if there's room because there probably won't be. I'll see you at dinner. If Colombia were already doing this perfectly, every American manufacturer would already be here. They're not. So, let's talk about why. Cartagena handles container traffic well, but it's constrained. Buenaventura on the Pacific side has had security and efficiency issues for years. For a serious near-shoring play, port modernization is non-negotiable. Moving cargo from Bogota to either coast means crossing the Andes. The road network is improving, but it's nowhere near what Mexico's northern industrial corridor offers.

[00:07:46]This is fixable, but it requires capital. Setting up a company in Colombia is more bureaucratic than it should be. Tax compliance is genuinely complicated. American CFOs read the foreign investment process and decide it's easier to expand in Mexico.

[00:08:02]Colombia needs a single window foreign investment process. Other countries have done this, so can Colombia. Most of Colombia is much safer than Americans assume, but perception lags reality by 20 years, and armed groups still control parts of rural Colombia. Until that's addressed, certain regions can't host certain industries, period. Now, let's talk about the 23.7% minimum wage hike. I've done a whole video on this. The recent wage increase is going to make Colombia somewhat less price competitive in the short run. It doesn't kill the case. Wages are still well below Mexico, China, and the US, but it's a headwind worth naming. I really don't know much about the candidates at all, but Andrew with Medellin Buzz mentioned that Ivan Cepeda is currently in the lead and will likely follow Petro's actions. If that is true and he wins, be prepared for continued increasing rents. Colombia produces good engineers, but scaling up specialized manufacturing, medical devices, electronics, automotive parts requires technical training programs that don't exist yet at scale. Mexico has been doing this for 30 years. Colombia is starting now. Not all manufacturing makes sense in Colombia. Trying to build full-scale automotive plants here in 1 year is a fantasy, but there are categories where Colombia could win specific bids today, and others where it could win in 5 years if it builds the foundation. Now, let's talk about apparel and textiles. Colombia already has a real industry here, particularly out of Medellin. With the FTA, this should be growing faster than it is.

[00:09:35]Colombian-made apparel in the US tariff free on a three-day shipping window.

[00:09:40]That should be a much bigger story than it is. Colombia is one of the most agriculturally diverse countries on earth. Coffee, cacao, fruits, flowers, palm oil. Adding processing capacity rather than just exporting raw commodities is a value capture move that doesn't require building from zero.

[00:09:56]Colombia already has a respected pharmaceutical manufacturing base.

[00:10:00]Medical devices are a logical next step.

[00:10:03]Both have FDA pathways for Colombian manufactured products. Now let's talk about light electronics and assembly.

[00:10:09]Not semiconductor fabs, that's not realistic, but assembly of consumer electronics components and finished goods, absolutely viable and the skills required are trainable in 18 months.

[00:10:20]Automotive parts, not full vehicles again, not yet, but components, trim, subassemblies for the Mexican and US industry. Colombia could plug into the existing North American auto supply chain as a tier two or tier three supplier within a few years. Now let's talk about packaging and consumer goods.

[00:10:38]That's lower complexity manufacturing where labor costs matter and proximity to the US market is decisive. This is the lowest friction entry category and probably where the first wave of nearshoring to Colombia would actually happen. So if I were advising a Colombian government on how to actually capture this opportunity, here's the short list. None of this is theoretical.

[00:10:59]Other countries have done every single one of these things. They would need a national nearshoring office with real authority. Mexico has one, Costa Rica has one, the Dominican Republic has one.

[00:11:10]Colombia needs a single agency reporting to the presidency whose only job is to land foreign manufacturing investment.

[00:11:17]Not a department inside ProColombia, a separate office with budget authority and a multi-year mandate that survives elections. It needs a single window foreign investment process. One online portal, one point of contact, tax registration, customs registration, free trade zone application, work visas, all handled in one place with a guaranteed turnaround time. This is a process problem, not a money problem. And then there also needs targeted infrastructure investment. Think port capacity at Cartagena and Buenaventura, highway upgrades on the Bogota to Caribbean and Bogota to Pacific corridors, reliable industrial grade electricity in the free trade zones. This costs real money, but it's the kind of investment that pays back. And then there needs to be bilingual technical training programs, public-private partnerships between SENA, Colombian universities, and the actual manufacturers being courted, training the workforce for specific announced investments, not for a generic future. And we need tax stability guarantees. Multinationals committing to 10 or 15-year manufacturing investments need certainty that the rules won't change underneath them. Codifying that guarantee in law of the highest leverage things any Colombian government could do. Now, let's talk about direct outreach to specific companies, not generic marketing, not glossy ads at Davos, a targeted list of 200 American manufacturers with current China or Vietnam exposure, and a Colombian government team whose job is to physically meet with their supply chain executives. That's how Mexico did it.

[00:12:52]That's how Vietnam did it. That's how everybody who has ever won this kind of investment did it. talk about the opportunity gap in numbers. Let me give you a sense of the scale of what's on the table here. Mexico is currently pulling in somewhere between 35 and 45 billion dollars a year in foreign direct investment, with manufacturing capturing roughly a third of that. Colombia in 2025 pulled in around 12 billion dollars in total FDI, and the share going to manufacturing was a small fraction of that. Most of Colombia's historical FDI has gone into oil, mining, and finance.

[00:13:27]Manufacturing has been an afterthought.

[00:13:29]If Colombia were to capture even 5% of the near-shoring wave that's currently going almost entirely to Mexico, that's an additional two to three billion dollars a year flowing into the country.

[00:13:40]If it captures 10%, that's five billion plus. We're talking hundreds of thousands of formal jobs over a decade.

[00:13:47]We're talking technology transfer, supplier ecosystems, export earnings, and a tax revenue at a scale no minimum wage hike or social program could ever generate. This is the single biggest economic lever Colombia has available right now, and almost nobody in Colombia politics is treating it that way. And before anyone in the comments tries to make this a political video, it isn't.

[00:14:10]Foreign manufacturing investment isn't a left or right issue in any country I can think of. It's jobs, it's wages, it's tax revenue, it's technology transfer, it's formal employment in a country that's about 50% informal. Whether you're Pacto Histórico, Centro Democrático, Liberal, or Independent, every single one of those camps says they want reindustrialization. This is the policy that delivers it. The disagreement is on method, not goal. And that's a healthy disagreement to have.

[00:14:41]But Colombia doesn't need to wait for that disagreement to be resolved before starting. The window for near-shoring is open right now, and it will not be open forever. Colombia has more going for it than Colombians often realize, and more going against it than the leaders admit.

[00:14:56]The honest truth is somewhere in the middle. Same time zone as the US, three and a half hour flight, free trade agreement, lower wages than Mexico, stable democracy, clean energy, young workforce, all real, all sitting on the table. Port and highway infrastructure, regulatory complexity, security perceptions, skills gaps, all real, all fixable, none of them quick. This won't happen by accident. It won't happen because Colombia is naturally lucky. It will happen if a Colombian administration, doesn't matter which one, decides to make it a national priority and executes on it for 10 straight years. It is the highest leverage economic move available to this country. And the next government has to decide whether to make it. If you're a Colombian watching this and you want to see this happen, share this video with somebody. Share it with somebody in business, somebody in government, somebody in a campaign. The conversation has to happen out loud and it isn't happening enough. If you're an American or a Canadian executive watching this and your supply chain currently runs through China, Vietnam, or India, think about whether the math actually still works. 3 and 1/2 hours to Miami, same time zone, tariff-free under a US trade agreement, run those numbers against your current setup. You might be surprised. If you're working on Colombia's economic future in any campaign at any level of government or running a business that's part of this story, my contact information is in the description. I have specific frameworks for how this could actually work and I'd be useful in the conversation. If this kind of analytical content is what you want more of, hit subscribe. I'm doing more of these. I'm Matt the Americano.

[00:16:32]Thanks for watching. I'll catch you in the next one.

[00:16:36]>> [music]