Once again, Donald Trump comes out his favorite weapon. The American president, who has made the taxation of customs rights the alpha and the omega of his economic policy, has just used this tool again. Its target? Venezuela, “very hostile” in the United States according to the leader. Caracas is accused by the billionaire of facilitating the arrival “knowingly and slyly” of “tens of thousands of criminals and other” in America. Monday, March 24, he therefore announced from the Oval Office to have signed a decree allowing to tax in an additional way the products of all the countries which are supplied in Venezuelan oil.
True to his desire to allow doubt, Donald Trump also mentioned a similar measure concerning gas purchases. But no mention of this specific point has been inscribed in the official text, published online by the White House. In detail, customers providing Venezuelan oil therefore are exposed to 25 % additional customs duties for all goods exported to the United States. These taxes can “be added to those already existing,” promised the American leader. Art of the bluff or not, the decree does not provide for automaticity of these sanctions: the sanction inflicted on each Buyer of Caracas will be decided on a case -by -case basis, to the assessment of the US Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
China, the main client of Caracas
In any case, Venezuela will suffer from these new threats. The president of the country, Nicolás Maduro, denounced the American approach on television on Monday evening. “”[Les Etats-Unis] Can sanction and impose customs duties on everything they want, but they cannot sanction the love and patriotism of the Venezuelan people, “he launched. Beyond the tariff issue, Donald Trump had already announced in late February calling into question the license to operate to Venezuela granted to the American chevron oil giant … even if the government seems to be may.
Already sanctioned today, Caracas can fear asphyxiation with the announcement of these measures. But, with this initiative, Donald Trump aims much further than to suffocate the economy of the South American state a little more. The Republican also wishes to reach the main customers of Venezuela: China and, to a lesser extent, India. Beijing is the main importer of oil produced in the country. And by far: China imports more than 500,000 barrels of crude oil every day. An important windfall for the country, whose demand for black gold has continued to grow in recent months.
The prospect of new customs sanctions, in addition to the prices of 20 percentage points already implemented by Washington on Chinese products, has something to worry about the power of Xi Jinping. “We call on the United States to stop getting involved in the internal affairs of Venezuela and to abolish illegal unilateral sanctions imposed in Venezuela,” said the spokesperson for the Chinese Foreign Ministry, Guo Jiakun, at a press conference on Monday. The previous American sanctions against Beijing had been justified by Donald Trump as the consequence of the supposed inaction of China against fentanyl traffic, this very consumed drug in the United States.
Target India, “queen of customs duties” according to Donald Trump
In the same way, the American president also aims to reach India with this measure. New Delhi also buys a lot of oil from Venezuela: out of two of the last three months, he was even his first customer in this area. However, Indian trade policy is in the crosshairs of Washington, which criticizes its important customs tax rate – it is true much higher on that of other global powers. Requalified as “Customs Rights” and “Great Assistant” in commercial matters by Donald Trump, India could also suffer from greater customs taxes on its exports.
Measures related to the purchase of Venezuelan oil must take place on April 2, at the same time as the possible “reciprocal” customs rights promised by Donald Trump to his economic partners. Beijing and New Delhi would therefore have every interest in finding alternatives to black gold produced by Caracas. According to some experts, another country could then benefit from the postponement of orders to its offer: Russia.
Moscow, also under economic sanctions related to the war in Ukraine, has been using a “ghost fleet” for months to continue to deliver its oil. “It is unlikely that China and India may be imposed on additional customs duties to access Venezuelan heavy oil, while they can buy Russian crude,” said David Goldwyn, an American analyst specializing in energy issues, questioned by the Reuters agency. A major issue, when Russian and American delegations discuss a potential ceasefire agreement on Ukrainian soil …