US President, Donald Trump has announced that any country that buys oil or gas from Venezuela will pay a 25% tariff on trades made with the US.
Trump announced in a Truth Social post that this “secondary tariff” will take effect on April 2, 2025.
He cited “numerous reasons” for the move, including his repeated claim that Venezuela has sent criminals to his country.
“Venezuela has purposefully and deceitfully sent to the United States, undercover, tens of thousands of high level, and other, criminals, many of whom are murderers and people of a very violent nature.
“Among the gangs they sent to the United States, is Tren de Aragua, which has been given the designation of ‘Foreign Terrorist Organization’.”
Donald Trump
Tren de Aragua has been the organisation cited by Trump when he controversially invoked the Alien Enemies Act, a 1798 law meant only to be used in wartime, to deport more than 250 mainly Venezuelan alleged gang members to El Salvador last week.
It was formally designated a “foreign terrorist organization” by the US last month.
In his post, Trump claimed that Venezuela has been “very hostile to the United States and the freedoms which we espouse.”
According to Commerce Department trade data, Venezuela was one of the top foreign suppliers of oil to the US last year.
In total, the US bought $5.6 billion of oil and gas from there in 2024. This came after the Biden administration briefly lifted sanctions on Venezuelan oil in 2023.
However, they were reinstated in April 2024 after the Biden administration accused the country’s leader, Nicolás Maduro, of failing to hold free and fair elections.
Even though shipments rose significantly during that short period, Venezuelan oil and gas shipments trailed far behind America’s top source of foreign oil, Canada, which exported $106 billion of oil and gas to the US last year.
Canada alone accounted for 60% of all oil and gas the US imported last year, while Venezuela accounted for 3%.
In February, Trump announced the US would scrap a license granted to Chevron since 2022 to operate in Venezuela and export its oil and gave the company until April to wind down its operations there, after he accused President Nicolás Maduro of not making progress on electoral reforms and migrant returns.
Prior to Monday’s announcement, Trump was already gearing up to limit the ability for Venezuelan oil to reach the United States by revoking Chevron’s joint venture license to pump oil there.
After meeting with Chevron CEO Mike Wirth and other oil executives last week, it was reported that Trump was considering a plan to extend Chevron’s license by 60 days.
The move, which is set to take effect on April 3, was presented by the Trump administration in part as a form of punishment for Venezuela’s unwillingness to accept deported migrants, who were accused of being part of the notorious Tren de Aragua gang.
Venezuela has since reached an agreement to resume repatriation flights from the US, receiving nearly 200 deportees on Monday.
Venezuela Receives Hundreds Of Deported Migrants From US
Venezuela’s Interior Minister, Diosdado Cabello confirmed the arrival of a group of 199 Venezuelan migrants deported from the US after the two countries reached an agreement to restart flights.
A diplomatic spat last week inflamed already tense relations as the US accused Venezuela of refusing to accept deportations flights, while Caracas accused Washington of blocking them.
As that unfolded, a plane-load of deported Venezuelans had arrived from Mexico, a country that has agreed to accept migrants from other countries sent by the US.
Cabello said that flights have been inconsistent “not because of Venezuela,” adding that they will “depend on the United States.”
The US sent the deportees first to Honduras, where they were picked up by Venezuelan state airline, Conviasa and sent to Caracas.
The US does not deport migrants directly to Venezuela due to the strained diplomatic relationship between the two countries.
The US state department’s bureau of western hemisphere affairs said in a post on X confirming the flight, “We expect to see a consistent flow of deportation flights to Venezuela going forward.”
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