Trump Threatens Tariffs on Nations Selling Oil To Cuba

Washington: US President Donald Trump signed an executive order Thursday threatening to impose additional tariffs on countries that sell oil to Cuba, increasing pressure on the communist island nation.

"An additional ad valorem (estimated value) 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," read in part the executive order released by the White House.

The order invokes the International Emergency Economic Powers Act and calls the Cuban government an "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, and Iran, as well as the militant groups Hamas and Hezbollah.

Cuba, which has largely been under a US embargo since 1962, until recently received most of its oil from Venezuela.

But since the ouster of Venezuela's autocratic president Nicolas Maduro, Trump has taken the reins of the country's oil sector and has vowed to stop oil shipments to Cuba without an agreement.

The Caribbean island has experienced severe fuel shortages in recent years, impacting its power grid and subjecting residents to widespread blackouts.

Another Latin American country, Mexico, continues to provide oil to Cuba, with President Claudia Sheinbaum earlier this week denying reports she had ceased oil shipments to Havana.