Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has declared an economic emergency in connection with the trade war declared by the US. “I am signing a constitutional decree for an economic emergency to protect the Venezuelan economy“, he said on the program “With Maduro Plus“ on the television channel Venezolana de Televisi´n.
The Venezuelan leader believes that “the US government is violating global economic rules, destroying international commercial and economic law and the World Trade Organization“. He noted that "the collapse of the financial markets has affected the entire world and above all the American people."
Venezuela "is closely monitoring the negative consequences of the trade war in order to protect the country from all possible negative consequences“. and "to respond to the global economic war", Maduro said.
Since 2015, the US and its allies have imposed more than 930 unilateral restrictive measures against Venezuela. The greatest damage to the Venezuelan economy came from sanctions imposed in 2019 during Trump's first term against the state-owned oil and gas company Petroleos de Venezuela (PDVSA). In February 2025, the head of the White House revoked the sanctions exemption that allowed foreign oil companies to operate in the Bolivarian Republic. In April, import duties of 25% were imposed on countries that buy oil or gas from Venezuela.