Just in time for Valentine’s Day, trade dispute with Colombia threatens flower imports
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Trump’s threat to impose a 25% tax on imports from Colombia comes at a particularly inconvenient time. The negotiations over the South American country’s willingness to accept flights carrying deported immigrants are intensifying just three weeks before Valentine’s Day, a peak time for the cut flower industry, with Colombia being America’s leading foreign source of these blooms.
However, it seems that romantics may not fall victim to this trade dispute. The White House announced on Sunday that Colombia had reassessed its position and agreed to allow the flights to land, following Trump’s threats to implement not only steep tariffs but also visa restrictions on this longstanding ally.
The White House confirmed that the tariffs on Colombian exports are on hold, but mentioned that visa restrictions on Colombian officials and enhanced customs inspections would stay in effect “until the first planeload of Colombian deportees is successfully returned.”
Colombian President Gustavo Petro had previously rejected two U.S. military aircraft bound for Colombia carrying migrants, claiming that Trump was not treating immigrants with dignity during deportations. In response, Petro threatened to retaliate against the United States with a 25% increase in Colombian tariffs on U.S. goods.
On late Sunday, the Colombian government announced that the impasse was resolved: “We have overcome the impasse with the United States government,” stated Colombian Foreign Minister Luis Gilberto Murillo. “We will continue to receive Colombians who return as deportees, guaranteeing them decent conditions as citizens entitled to rights.”
While the U.S. is Colombia’s primary export market, it makes up only 0.5% of American goods imports, placing Colombia as the 26th largest importer of goods to the United States.
From January through November last year, the U.S. enjoyed a $1 billion surplus with Colombia in goods, with U.S. exports reaching $17.2 billion—including soybeans and cotton—surpassing imports of $16.2 billion.
Through November, the U.S. imported $1.14 billion worth of cut flowers from Colombia, surpassing the total for the entire year of 2023, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Colombia’s climate and soil are ideal for growing flowers such as roses, carnations, and chrysanthemums. Much of the cultivation occurs in the savanna around the capital, Bogotá, where the weather is mild, the sun shines for 12 hours a day, and the growing season extends through the entire year.
U.S. government aid has played a pivotal role in supporting the Colombian flower industry, providing jobs for individuals displaced by violence related to terrorism and drug trafficking.
Colombia is also the United States’ second-largest source of coffee, after Brazil. The USDA reported that U.S. coffee imports from Colombia totaled $1.4 billion from January to November 2024, a slight decline from the same period in 2023. Colombian coffee has been marketed in the U.S. for decades through advertisements featuring the fictional farmer Juan Valdez, often depicted with sacks of coffee beans.
The largest export from Colombia to the United States is crude oil. From January to November, the U.S. imported 70 million barrels of crude oil from Colombia, worth nearly $5.4 billion. In 2023, total imports of Colombian crude stood at $5.6 billion.
Colombia ranked as the sixth-largest source of imported crude for the U.S., accounting for just over 3% of the country’s oil imports in 2023. The Colombian oil company Ecopetrol appears on the Fortune 500 list of the world’s largest companies.
