With Valentine’s Day approaching, President Donald Trump’s risk to impose a 25 % tax on imports from Colombia is elevating issues, particularly amid rising tensions over deported immigrants.
Colombia is the USA’ prime supply of minimize flowers for the upcoming event.
With the US importing USD 1.14 billion value of minimize flowers from Colombia by November—surpassing the entire for all of 2023, based on the US Division of Agriculture—the nation stays a key provider for the US flower market.
Nonetheless, in a flip of occasions, romantics could also be spared from the commerce dispute’s influence. On Sunday, the White Home introduced that Colombia had backtracked, agreeing to permit the flights to land, simply hours after Trump threatened to impose visa restrictions and hefty tariffs on the longtime South American ally.
The White Home introduced that tariffs on Colombian exports can be suspended however emphasised that visa restrictions on Colombian officers and enhanced customs inspections would keep in place “till the primary planeload of Colombian deportees is efficiently returned.”
Earlier, Colombian President Gustavo Petro had refused to permit two US navy plane carrying migrants to land, accusing Trump of failing to deal with immigrants with dignity throughout deportation.
Petro additionally threatened to retaliate by imposing a 25 % tariff improve on US items. Nonetheless, late Sunday, the Colombian authorities indicated the standoff was resolved.
“Now we have overcome the deadlock with the USA authorities,” mentioned Colombian international minister Luis Gilberto Murillo.
“We’ll proceed to obtain returning Colombians, making certain they’re handled with dignity as residents entitled to rights,” Murillo added.
The US is Colombia’s greatest export market nevertheless it accounts for simply 0.5 per cent of American items imports, rating because the world’s No. 26 importer of products to the USA.
From January by November, the US ran a USD 1 billion surplus with Colombia final yr in items, as US exports of USD 17.2 billion — together with soybeans and cotton — topped imports of USD 16.2 billion.
With AP inputs
