This article aims to identify the effects generated by the economic openness as trade policy in the Colombian dairy industry. Through the analysis of different variables at the national level and in the Latin American-Caribbean region, we found that the Colombian dairy industry have high levels of tariff protectionism reflecting internal problems of productive efficiency and competitiveness. It is concluded that the dairy sector in Colombia must to improve production efficiency to offer competitive domestic prices, and thus meet the domestic demand for dairy products, as well as to focus dairy exports on products with higher added value. © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.