so much of its merchandise because it has no national industry of any kind.

So very strange, isn't it?

More from the article:

The representative said that 70% of merchandise sold in Medellin’s downtown district is imported, leaving the shop owners without the possibility to import merchandise and forcing them to buy their products from one of few legal international traders.

“We reject this favoritism for monopolist importers,” he said.

The massive protests shut down economic activity in the centers of Bogota, Medellin, Cali, Bucaramanga, Villavicencio and Cucuta.

I am sure Venezuela has their fare share of crappy chinese gadgets too.



http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/05/23/us-colombia-agriculture-idUSTRE74M4OQ20110523

Already the world's top grower of high-quality washed arabica coffee and No. 5 in palm oil, Colombia is mostly self sufficient in food production but imports more than 3 million tons of corn each year for animal feed. The government wants to grow enough corn to cover up to half of domestic demand.

Venezuelan gasoline and goods still sold in Colombia despite crackdown
By Chris Kraul
January 17, 2015 7:00 AM
REPORTING FROM CUCUTA, COLOMBIA

Miguel is a pimpinero, a curbside vendor of contraband Venezuelan gasoline that he sells at two-thirds of the going price at Colombian gas stations..

The nickname comes from pimpin, the slang word for the 6-gallon plastic containers that Miguel stacks on a busy street corner. A steady stream of cars and cabs stop for a fill-up, which he pours with the help of a makeshift funnel of a bottomless plastic Coke bottle fitted to a hose. The cost: $2.75 per gallon rather than $4.25.

"It's cheaper and it's good quality," Miguel said after pouring the contents of a yellow pimpin into a newish Hyundai SUV. "The police have become a little more bothersome, but they leave us alone if we give them a little for their motorcycles or whatever."

Miguel occupies a strategic corner in downtown Cucuta, Colombia's sixth-largest city, near the Simon Bolivar international bridge. About half of his clients are return customers.

"Sure, this gas costs more than it used to," he said. "But people here were born to this and so they buy it."

More:
http://www.latimes.com/world/mexico-americas/la-fg-colombia-border-20150117-story.html