Countries supplying oil to Cuba threatened with US tariffs

President Trump signs executive order pressuring Cuban oil supplies in wake of US military’s abduction of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro.

United States President Donald Trump has signed an executive order to impose new tariffs on any country that supplies oil to⁠ Cuba, the latest move in Washington’s campaign of pressure on Havana.

The order, signed by Trump on Thursday, describes the Cuban government as an “unusual and extraordinary threat” to US national security.

“The regime aligns itself with – and provides support for – numerous hostile countries, transnational terrorist groups, and malign actors adverse to the United States,” including Russia, China, Iran, Hamas and Hezbollah, Trump’s order states.

“Under this system, an additional ad valorem duty may be imposed on imports of goods that are products of a foreign country that directly or indirectly sells or otherwise provides any oil to Cuba,” it adds.

Trump has spoken several times of acting against Cuba, saying earlier this month that the Cuban leadership should “make a deal, before it is too late” – without specifying the nature of such a deal or the consequences.

The US president’s threats against Cuba come in the wake of US forces abducting Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and his wife in a bloody military night raid on the capital Caracas earlier this month. The US has since taken effective control of Venezuela’s oil sector, and Trump has promised to stop oil shipments previously sent to Cuba.

Just this week, Trump said that “Cuba will be failing pretty soon”, noting the lack of Venezuelan oil or revenue arriving in Havana.

Cuba’s Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez quickly slammed Trump’s order, calling it a “brutal act of aggression” backed up by “a long list of lies intended to portray Cuba as a threat” to the US.

“We denounce before the world this brutal act of aggression against Cuba and its people, who for more than 65 years have been subjected to the longest and cruellest economic blockade ever imposed on an entire nation,” the minister said on social media.

“Every day brings new evidence that the only threat to the peace, security, and stability of the region – and the only malign influence – is that exerted by” the US, he said.

Trump’s executive order on Thursday also comes amid US pressure on Mexico to distance itself from Cuba.

This week, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said that her government had at least temporarily stopped oil shipments to Cuba, but said it was a “sovereign decision” not made under pressure from Washington.

Mexico, along with Venezuela, provides the majority of Cuba’s oil supplies, but Venezuelan crude has been cut off since the US abduction of former President Maduro on January 3.

According to The Financial Times, Mexico supplied some 44 percent of Cuba’s oil imports, and Venezuela supplied 33 percent until last month. About 10 percent is also sourced from Russia and a smaller amount from Algeria, according to The Financial Times.