The Government of Guyana (GoG) has assured local exporters that it will engage them shortly to discuss the 38% reciprocal tariff imposed by the United States. Vice President Dr. Bharrat Jagdeo at his press conference today explained that the Trump administration’s announcement of a global 10% tariff, along with higher individualized reciprocal tariffs for over 50 countries, including Guyana, was not unexpected.
“So, President Trump’s announcement yesterday did not come as a surprise to us here in Guyana, this was anticipated, this was expected,” he said.
He stated that government will engage the US government to clarify a possible discrepancy in trade data that may have influenced the 38% reciprocal tariff on Guyana.
The Vice President explained that based on government’s understanding of the methodology behind the reciprocal tariff, it appears to be based on trade surpluses with the United States rather than individual tariff barriers.
Jagdeo referenced United Nations COMTRADE data which show a significant difference between Guyana’s reported trade surplus versus the United States figures. According to Guyana’s data to the UN COMTRADE there was a US$799 million surplus in 2024, while the US reported a US$4.1 billion trade surplus. According to the US government data, this means that Guyana exported US$4.1 billion more to the US, than it imported from the US in 2024.
“A number of people thought that it was based on our own trade barriers that is higher tariff rates for goods coming from the US that caused us to be in the bracket or in the category of higher reciprocal taxes. From what we looked at and 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’re importing from the United States of America,” Jagdeo explained.
Further, he noted that the government intends to work with US officials to clarify the difference in trade surplus.
“We are still to work with the US 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, cause we have good import data that we are importing much more from the United States of America than is reported by the US to the UN COMTRADE, and so that is one area where that can lead to a significant reduction in the trade surplus,” he said.
Moreover, the Vice President noted that certain exports, including petroleum, aluminum ore, and gold, are exempt from the higher reciprocal tariffs based on Trump’ executive order annex.
To this end, he reassured local exporters that the government is committed to ensuring continued market access. “I want to assure all of our exporters that we’ll work with them as we learn more of the issue. We will be meeting with them, working with them to ensure that they can continue to access the US markets and other markets in the world and they will have the full support of the government of Guyana,” he said.
Dismissing opposition claims that the tariff reflects a failure of Guyana’s diplomacy, Jagdeo stressed that the measure is part of a broader US trade policy. “It has nothing to do with that, and they should have not been surprised, we were anticipating it, we just did not know what form it would take,” he said.
