Oil prices climb amid Trump’s tariff threats

Oil prices rose on Friday as markets weighed the threat of tariffs by U.S. President Donald Trump on Mexico and Canada, the two largest crude exporters to the U.S., that could take effect this weekend.

Brent crude futures for March, which expires on Friday, gained 61 cents at $77.48 a barrel at 0430 GMT. The more-active April contract was at $76.37 a barrel, up 48 cents, News.Az reports, citing Reuters.

U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude (WTI) gained 65 cents to $73.38.

For the week, Brent is set to fall 1.3% while WTI has declined 1.69%.

However, for the month of January, Brent is set to gain 3.8%, its best month since June, and WTI is poised to climb 2.3%.

Investors are contemplating the likelihood of U.S. tariffs alongside a flurry of executive orders and policy announcements, ANZ Bank analyst Daniel Hynes said.

Trump has threatened to impose a 25% tariff as early as Saturday on Canadian and Mexican exports to the United States if those two countries do not end shipments of fentanyl across U.S. borders.

It is unclear if the tariffs would include crude oil. On Thursday, Trump said he would soon decide whether to exclude Canadian and Mexican oil imports from the tariffs.

In 2023, the last full year of data, Canada exported 3.9 million barrels per day of crude to the U.S., out of 6.5 million bpd of total imports, while Mexico exported 733,000 bpd, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, the statistical arm of the Department of Energy.

News.Az