‘No need to panic’ – Guyana Chronicle
–Jagdeo tells Guyanese exporters following Trump’s announcement of reciprocal tariffs
-says clarity will be sought from U.S. gov’t
DOMESTIC exporters have been advised not to panic as the Guyana government plans to engage the United States (U.S.) over its recent reciprocal tariffs, People’s Progressive Party (PPP) General Secretary and Guyana’s Vice-President, Dr. Bharrat Jagdeo has said.
Jagdeo, during a press conference on Thursday at Freedom House, spoke of plans to use an engagement with the U.S. to clarify a number of matters regarding trade, with the hope of easing import duties on local goods.
- President, Donald Trump recently announced a tariff plan as part of his 2025 re-election campaign strategy.
In that regard, Jagdeo noted that the announcement does not come as a surprise since President Trump had spoken extensively about trade during his election campaign, highlighting how he planned to use it as a vehicle to rebalance trade between his country and the rest of the world.
“So, President Trump’s announcement yesterday did not come as a surprise to us here in Guyana. This was anticipated,” he said.
The VP then delved into the government’s current understanding of President Trump’s tariff plans.
President Trump imposed a 10 per cent tariff on all countries but he also announced individualised reciprocal tariffs that are higher for over 50 countries, including Guyana.
Jagdeo then proposed the calculation that he believes the U.S. used to arrive at that figure. He said: “From what we looked at, all we have read, it seems as though all of the countries that have had higher reciprocal tariffs are countries that have been exporting more into the United States of America than they are importing from the United States of America. That is, countries that have a trade surplus with the United States of America. It seems as though that is the basis for higher reciprocal tariff not individualised tariff barriers in each country.”
He then pointed to some statistics from the United Nations (UN) global trade platform, Comtrade data, which indicated that, for 2024, Guyana exported US$3.3 billion to the U.S. and imported U.S.$2.56 billion, so there was a trade surplus.
However, the U.S. reported that the exports from Guyana into that country totalled US$5.5 billion while the imports amounted to US$1.3 billion.
According to their figures, there was a trade surplus of $4.1 billion.
Jagdeo told members of the media that the Trump administration might have derived the 38 per cent figure based on the aforementioned figures.
However, Jagdeo contended that the rate might drop if the trade surplus statistics drop and if the facts are made clear and both parties can reconcile the trade figures.
“The bigger the surplus is in percentage terms, the higher would be your reciprocal tariff. It is across the board, it is for friend and foe alike,” he said, adding: “We’re still to work closer with the U.S. government on the numbers and to see if that is what is applicable in our case. So clearly, we would want to point out to the United States of America, because we have good import data, that we’re importing much more from the United States of America than is reported by the U.S.”
He said that is one area where that can lead to a significant reduction in the trade surplus.
Over the past four years, Guyana’s trade surplus has surged, largely driven by oil exports, Jagdeo clarified.
This growth underscored the dominant role of oil exports in shaping trade balances, with much of the industry under American ownership thought ExxonMobil and Hess, the Vice-President highlighted.
Some US$3.1 billion which represents a large portion of Guyana’s exports to the U.S. in 2024, came from the petroleum sector, he added.
Three of the main Guyanese exports to the U.S. are petroleum products, aluminium ore, and gold, all of which are free from the tariffs, the VP pointed out.
He then said: “Our discussion with the United States government will have to show the points I made that there is no inbuilt discrimination against U.S. products coming into our market…So I’ll be looking forward to having that engagement with the U.S. government. I want to assure all of our exporters that we [will] work with them, as we learn more of the issue… There is no need to panic about this issue.”
