On March 24, 2025, Donald Trump, the sitting president, revealed his new policy which entails a 25% surcharge on any vendors who buy oil or gas from Venezuela’s suppliers. This surcharge is set to take effect on April 2, 2025. Its purpose is to try to dis-incentivise any parties still trading energy with Venezuela, something which the U.S. government argues facilitates violent immigration into the country. It is termed as a “secondary tariff.”

Context and Justification

In response to heightened domestic infrastructure problems, President Trump has accused Venezuela of actively committing aiding and abetting by “tens of thousands” of gang members and violent people migrating into the U.S. which worsens the national security problems. To tackle this, the government wants to minimize Venezuela’s main income making activity of exporting oil and gas by forcing buyers to pay higher tariffs. 

Effects on International Trading Relations

The implementation of this policy is set to change the dynamics with countries purchasing Venezuelan oil such as India and China. These two have a considerable appetite for crude and imposing the additional tariffs on the Venezuelan exports to the U.S. will shift relations so that they will need to change the methods they buy oil and gas. 

Changes in Domestic Policy

In recent news, the United States has revoked a permit that allowed Chevron to extract and sell oil from Venezuela. This change appears to be one of the first steps of the new policy shift.

According to President Trump, President Nicolás Maduro’s regime has not made any progress on receiving Venezuelans back or implementing electoral reforms, which is why Chevron’s permit was revoked. 

This announcement has drawn a wide range of reactions in America and around the world. The concerns within America focus on the increased costs of energy and the economic impacts of the tariffs. While matters outside America are more complex, the countries affected aim to gauge how much they need energy relative to how much damage the tariffs can do to their economies. 

As discussed in the Financial Times

The imposition of tariffs is one of the more extreme challenges set forth by the United States due to foreign policy decisions made regarding Venezuela. It is expected that by April 2, a few weeks from now, markets will begin to shift and adjust accordingly due to these measures and the new set monetary policies.