Caracas hits out at US plan to slap tariffs on its oil buyers

Venezuela dismissed Washington’s threat to impose tariffs on countries that buy its oil as “arbitrary, illegal, and desperate.”

Analysts say the move to impose the so-called secondary tariffs on the Latin American nation — over its alleged support for gang activity in the US — is unprecedented, and could represent a potent new economic weapon: Tariffs are easier to enact than traditional sanctions and are harder to avoid.

The threat of the tariffs has already driven up oil prices and drawn Beijing’s ire. But while the US and China are among the biggest buyers of Venezuelan crude, US purchases are likely to cease when a waiver on Chevron operating in the sanctions-hit country expires in May.