Washington’s famous cherry blossoms aren’t the only blooms catching the eye today, our colleague Sudeep Reddy reports on the WSJ’s Real Time Economics blog.
Bouquets of roses are being delivered to Capitol Hill offices, courtesy of Colombia.
The Colombian government, pressing for an extension of a trade preference program that expired last month, is warning lawmakers that U.S. consumers will have to pay more for flowers around Easter, Passover and Mother’s Day as a result of congressional inaction.
The Andean Trade Promotion and Drug Eradication Act, which has been supporting Colombia and Ecuador, was designed in part to fight drug trafficking by supporting alternatives to producing drugs in those countries. It expired February 12, reinstating import duties for thousands of products including plants, petroleum and clothing. The Colombian ambassador to the U.S., Gabriel Silva, said half a million Colombian jobs are at risk as a result.
To read the rest of the story, please go to: The Wall Street Journal