Donald Trump is living up to his “tariff man” brand. On Monday, he appeared to invent a new one altogether. Secondary tariffs — a mash-up of secondary sanctions and tariffs — will be imposed by the US on any nation that buys oil or gas from Venezuela.
The import duties will take effect from April 2, the day when the world expects to hear what the US administration’s plans are for its headline agenda of reciprocal levies.
How will it work? Trump says America would apply a 25 per cent tariff on buyers of Venezuelan crude “on top of existing tariffs”. How it will be applied and enforced is unclear. But for the US president, the details are beyond the point (America was in fact the largest importer of oil from the South American country last year, based on ship tracking data).