By: Staff Writer
March 28, 2025
US President Donald Trump posted on the social media platform, Truth Social, that he would sign an executive order imposing 25 percent tariffs on countries that purchase Venezuelan oil and gas, effective from 2 April.
As with any recent tariff announcement by Trump, the devil is in the details. Venezuela currently exports oil and gas to a variety of countries, ranging from US rivals such as China and Russia to US allies such as India, Spain, France, and a number of small Caribbean nations. Is Trump interested in slapping an additional 25 percent tariff on Chinese goods sold in the United States, on top of the current 20 percent tariffs? Is he willing to impose tariffs on US allies? And are any of these countries willing to risk those tariffs in order to continue receiving Venezuelan crude oil and gas? All of this remains unclear.
One Caribbean minister for energy, JoBeth Coleby-Davis of The Bahamas, said that the Bahamas, at least, would not be impacted by the Venezuelan oil policy. However, several Caribbean countries depend on Venezuelan oil heavily.
In November 2022, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines became the first country to resume receipt of oil under the PetroCaribe terms.
Trinidad and Tobago was previously granted a waiver against oil sanctions last year, allowing it to proceed with the Dragon gas project, which may be in trouble now that the Trump Venezuela policy is beginning to take shape.
According to Antonio De La Cruz, director of the Washington-based think tank Inter American Trends, the 25% tariff is a game-changer in Trump’s “maximum pressure” policy on Venezuela. “Previously, enforcing sanctions on Petróleos de Venezuela, PDVSA, rested solely on the U.S. Treasury,” De La Cruz said. “Now, with tariffs in place, compliance responsibility shifts to the governments of countries importing Venezuelan oil. The economic risks associated with these imports suddenly outweigh their benefits.”
Since sanctions were imposed on PDVSA in January 2019, Venezuela had managed to circumvent them by secretly selling crude oil to small independent traders willing to take the risk in exchange for significant price discounts. However, the new tariff has the potential of changing that equation dramatically, De La Cruz said.
Oil prices surged following Trump’s recent Venezuelan tarrif announcement, with WTI futures at NYMEX climbing 1.22% to $69.11 per barrel, while Brent futures at ICE rose 1.16% to $73 per barrel on Monday. Both benchmarks hit their highest levels since 3 March, recording gains of 11% and 6.7%, respectively, despite a slight pullback during Tuesday’s Asian session.
Trump referred to the new oil duties as a “secondary tariff”, aimed at tackling illegal migration from Venezuela. “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,” he claimed.