Kazakhstan's oil and uranium exports to the United States may not be subject to new tariffs.

According to a report from Kazinform on April 3, despite US President Donald Trump's announcement on April 2 to impose "reciprocal" tariffs on imports from multiple countries, core commodities exported by Kazakhstan to the United States - oil and uranium products - may not be affected by the new tariffs.

According to the Annex II of the presidential order released by the White House, some goods have been explicitly excluded from the scope of the new round of taxation, including: uranium ore and its concentrates, metallic natural uranium, compounds of natural uranium and enriched uranium-235, etc. In the entire 37-page list of goods, petroleum products are mentioned 127 times, but due to differences in the commodity coding system, it is still unclear whether Kazakhstan's specific petroleum and uranium products will be fully exempted.

The White House document uses the eight-digit U.S. Customs Harmonized System (HS Code) code system, while the Kazakhstan Ministry of Finance National Revenue Committee uses four-, six-, and ten-digit codes when compiling foreign trade statistics, thus creating certain difficulties in alignment.

In addition, other goods not included in the tax range include titanium ores, coal, copper, cobalt, and zinc ores, etc.

According to data from the Kazakhstan Ministry of Finance National Revenue Committee, Kazakhstan's total exports to the United States in 2024 amounted to $1.9 billion, an increase of 26% year-on-year. Meanwhile, Kazakhstan's total imports from the United States in the same period were $2.2 billion, a decrease of 12% year-on-year.

In the trade structure between Kazakhstan and the United States, oil and uranium are the most important export commodities. In 2024, Kazakhstan's total oil exports to the United States amounted to $1.1 billion, an increase of 29% compared to 2023; uranium and its compounds exported to the United States reached $313.5 million, with enriched uranium exports amounting to $9.2 million. In 2023, the export value of natural uranium was $78.9 million, and enriched uranium was $5.1 million.

In this tariff adjustment by the Trump administration, a uniform import tariff of 27% was imposed on goods from Kazakhstan. The White House stated that this was a reciprocal measure in response to Kazakhstan's 54% tariff on American goods, but did not provide further clarification regarding this data source.

It is reported that the United States has implemented varying degrees of tariff adjustments on 184 countries and regions as well as the EU. Among them, the highest tariffs are imposed on Lesotho (50%), French Saint Pierre and Miquelon (50%), Cambodia (49%), Laos (48%), and Madagascar (47%), etc.

Original article: https://www.toutiao.com/article/1828366285563978/

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