The US has reimposed economic sanctions against a Venezuelan state-owned mining company and says it could go on to reimpose further sanctions on the country’s oil and gas sector after Venezuela’s Supreme Court barred main opposition candidate Maria Corina Machado from running for president last week.
The US Treasury on Monday revoked General License 43, which had authorized dealings with mining conglomerate CVG-Minerven. The Treasury said US companies have until February 13 to wind down transactions that were previously authorized by that license.
While US economic sanctions against the mining company are unlikely to cause significant damage to the Venezuelan economy, the US State Department has crucially signaled it intends to renew oil and gas sanctions from April 18, if there’s no progress between Venezuela’s authoritarian president Nicolas Maduro and the opposition “particularly on allowing all presidential candidates to compete in this year’s elections,” it said in a statement.
You are correct. A sovereign country should be able to engage in bilateral trade.
Imposing sanctions, on the other hand, is a measure of coercion that prevents that.
Sanctions are merely a blockade of trade? The US saying they will not trade with Venezuela?
They are not. When sanctions are in play, two countries that would otherwise want to trade will be prevented from doing so.
The usa refusing to trade themselves is entirely valid, but they go the extra mile and punish others for trading with their rivals.