Trump to Impose Tariffs Against Countries That Buy Venezuelan Oil

President Trump issued an executive order on Monday to repress the countries that purchase Venezuelan oil by imposing rates on the goods that these nations send in the United States, claiming that Venezuela has “intentionally and deceptive” criminals and killers in America.

In order, the president said that the government of Nicolás Maduro, the Venezuelan leader and the Tren de Aragua gang, a transnational criminal organization, represented a threat to national security and foreign policy of the United States.

Starting from 2 or after, a 25 percentage rate can be imposed on all the goods imported to the United States by any country that imports Venezuelan oil, directly or indirectly through third parties, said the order.

The order states that the secretaries of state, treasure, commerce and homeland security, as well as the commercial representative, would determine at their discretion which rates to impose. The rates would have expired a year after the last date on which the Venezuelan oil had been imported, or before if Trump’s officials had chosen, he said.

This unconventional use of rates could further stop the global oil trade since Venezuelan oil buyers seek alternatives. The United States and China have been the best Venezuelan oil buyers in recent months, according to Rystad Energy, a research and consultancy company. India and Spain also acquire a small amount of crude oil from the South American country.

But in the case of China, Venezuela’s oil constitutes such a small part of the imports of the country that the threat of higher rates will probably cause China to look for oil elsewhere, said Jorge León, a Rystad Energy analyst.

American Venezuelan oil purchases are ready to relax after the Trump administration he said he would revoke a license This allowed Chevron to produce oil there.

The Trump administration on Monday gave Chevron, the second largest US oil company, two more months to produce oil in Venezuela and sell it to the United States. The administration had previously ordered Chevron to close his operations by April 3.

US governments and Venezuelans have divided the plans of Mr. Trump to expel migrants from the United States. Venezuela announced Saturday who had reached an agreement with the Trump administration to resume accepting deportation flights of migrants who were illegally in the United States.

“Venezuela was very hostile to the United States and the freedom we marry,” wrote the president.

Mr. Trump plans to impose other new rates globally on April 2, when he introduces what he is calling “mutual rates. “He said the United States will increase the rates that accuse themselves on other countries to combine their withdrawals, taking into consideration other behaviors that affect trade, such as taxes and handling the currency.

Trump has defined the new withdrawals that he threatened for buyers of Venezuelan “secondary rates”, a label that has echoed “secondary penalties”, which are penalties imposed on other countries or parties that trade with nations under sanctions.

Some trade and penalties experts have said that existing secondary sanctions associated with countries such as Russia and Iran have not already been well applied and wondered if the United States would have had the ability to create new sanctions based on rates.

“Given the limited application of existing secondary sanctions, in which we have a precedent, I am not sure of how realistic the effective deployment of this strategy is,” said Daniel Tannebaum, partner of the consultancy company Oliver Wyman and Senior Fellow of the Atlantic Council, a washington tank.

But other experts said that the strategy could help the United States avoid the type of financial sanctions on foreign banks that could threaten financial stability. The use of tariffs could help the United States to be seen how to act difficult without incurring such risks, they said.

With typical secondary sanctions, people or companies cannot buy oil or other products in penalties from a country in the black list. Otherwise, companies could be subjected to US sanctions themselves, in the face of fines or to be cut by the United States financial system.

But Mr. Trump and his directors said they thought that these sanctions can threaten the pre -eminence of the dollar if they are abused, encouraging other countries to find alternative currencies. Instead they talked about using rates.

In his confirmation hearing in January, the Treasury Secretary Scott Besent said that the rates, in addition to collecting revenues and redirect the supply chains, could provide an alternative to traditional financial penalties.

Trump “believes that we have probably overcome our skis a little and that the sanctions could push the countries from the use of the US dollar,” said Bessent. Rates could be used instead, he said.