Flowers, Vegetables Could Affect Snowden’s Fate
NSA leaker Edward Snowden, who apparently sleeping in a transit capsule hotel at the Moscow airport, is running out of options.
His US passport has been revoked. He has no visa to enter Russia, and while he’s a “free man,” according to Russian President Vladimir Putin, it’s also time for him to go. abcnews.go.com
His asylum request to Ecuador is stalled, with diplomats there asking for the US position in writing and saying the government may take months to decide on Snowden’s request. reuters.com
Economic ties with the USA may affect that decision, according to this AP report.
Unlike with China, Russia or Cuba, countries where the U.S. has relatively few tools to force Snowden’s handover, the Obama administration could swiftly hit Ecuador in the pocketbook by denying reduced tariffs on cut flowers, artichokes and broccoli. Those represent hundreds of millions of dollars in annual exports for this country where nearly half of foreign trade depends on the U.S.
A denial wouldn’t mean financial devastation for Ecuador, which has been growing healthily in recent years thanks in large part to its oil resources. But analysts and political figures said the prospect of any economic damage could nonetheless alter the political calculus for Correa, a pragmatic leftist who’s long delighted in tweaking the United States but hasn’t yet suffered any major consequences.
Snowden’s got problems.