By PAUL WISEMAN, Related Press
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump’s risk to impose a 25% tax on imports from Colombia comes at a most inauspicious time: The wrangling over the South American nation’s willingness to just accept flights carrying deported immigrants is flaring up simply three weeks earlier than Valentine’s Day, and Colombia is America’s No. 1 international supply of reduce flowers.
However romantics could spared from turning into victims of a commerce dispute. The White Home declared victory on Sunday, saying that Colombia had reversed itself and agreed to permit the flights to land, backing down simply hours after Trump threatened to impose visa restrictions along with the steep tariffs on its longtime ally in South America.
The White Home mentioned tariffs on Colombian exports could be placed on maintain, however added that visa restrictions on Colombian officers and enhanced customized inspections would stay “until the first planeload of Colombian deportees is successfully returned.”
Earlier, Columbian President Gustavo Petro’s had rejected two Colombia-bound U.S. army plane carrying migrants. Petro accused Trump of not treating immigrants with dignity throughout deportation and threatened to retaliate in opposition to U.S. by slapping a 25% improve in Colombian tariffs on U.S. items.
The Colombian authorities signaled late Sunday that the standoff was over: “We have overcome the impasse with the United States government,” mentioned Colombian International Minister Luis Gilberto Murillo. “We will continue to receive Colombians who return as deportees, guaranteeing them decent conditions as citizens subject to rights.”
The U.S. is Colombia’s largest export market nevertheless it accounts for simply 0.5% of American items imports, rating because the world’s No. 26 importer of products to the USA.
From January by means of November, the U.S. ran a $1 billion surplus with Colombia final yr in items, as U.S. exports of $17.2 billion — together with soybeans and cotton — topped imports of $16.2 billion.
Listed below are Colombia’s largest exports to the U.S.:
Flowers
By means of November, the U.S. had imported $1.14 billion price of reduce flowers from Colombia, greater than it introduced in for all of 2023, based on the U.S. Division of Agriculture.
Colombia has a perfect local weather and soil for rising flowers equivalent to roses, carnations and chrysanthemums. A lot of the cultivation is centered within the savanna across the capital Bogota. Temperatures are delicate, the solar shines 12 hours a day and the rising season lasts yr spherical.
U.S. authorities help cash has supported the Colombian flower business, creating jobs for folks displaced by terrorist- and drug-related violence.
Espresso
Colombia is the USA’ No. 2 supply of espresso behind Brazil: The USDA says that U.S. espresso imports from Colombia got here to $1.4 billion in January-November 2024, down barely from the identical interval of 2023.
For many years, Colombian espresso has been marketed in the USA by means of commercials that includes the fictional farmer Juan Valdez, typically seen carrying sacks of espresso beans.
Crude oil
Colombia’s largest export to the USA is crude oil. By means of November, the USA had imported 70 million barrels of crude oil from Colombia, price virtually $5.4 billion. In 2023, the U.S. imported $5.6 billion price of Colombian crude.
Colombia was the No. 6 supply of imported crude to the USA, accounting for simply over 3% of oil imports in 2023. The Colombian oil big Ecopetrol is on the Fortune 500 register of the world’s largest firms.
