Trump eases sanctions on Venezuela, targets oil for Cuba

On Thursday, Donald Trump's administration eased some sanctions on Venezuela's oil industry in an effort to expand production in the country after US forces kidnapped the South American country's president, Nicolás Maduro, on January 3.

The US Treasury Department issued a general license allowing transactions involving the Venezuelan government and state oil company PDVSA that are "ordinarily necessary for the extraction, export, re-export, sale, resale, delivery, storage, marketing, purchase, delivery, or transport of petroleum of Venezuelan origin, including the refining of such petroleum by an established U.S. entity."

On the same day, President Donald Trump signed an executive order declaring a national emergency and initiating a process to impose tariffs on goods from countries that sell or otherwise supply oil to Cuba.

(reuters, max)