Crude Oil Prices Plunge 7% as China Imposes Tariffs on US Imports

This brought down the price of Brent crude by $4.56 or 6.5 per cent to sell at $65.58 per barrel and the US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude lost $4.96 or 7.4 per cent to end at $61.99 per barrel.

For the week, Brent was down by 10.9 per cent, its biggest weekly loss in percentage terms in a year and a half, while WTI posted its biggest decline in two years with a drop of 10.6 per cent.

As a result of this, prices slipped to their lowest level in almost four years Friday.

China said on Friday that it will impose a 34 per cent tariff on all US imports from April 10, in a response to US President Donald Trump levying 34 per cent duties on Chinese imports as part of a wider spree on 180 countries.

Retaliation from nations around the world could hurt economic growth and demand for key commodities such as crude oil and refined products.

China, the world’s largest oil importer, also imposed export controls on several rare earth elements — crucial for advanced technologies and almost exclusively mined in China — and banned Chinese firms from selling components to an additional 11 American companies.

Market  analysts warned that China’s retaliatory measures have boosted fears of a global recession.

JP Morgan raised the probability of a US and global recession by year end to 60 per cent on Friday, forecasting that the effects of President Trump’s levies are “likely to be magnified through retaliation, a slide in US business sentiment and supply chain disruptions.”

On its part, Goldman Sachs analysts cuts their 2025 targets for Brent and WTI by $5 each to $66 and $62 respectively.

Further pressuring oil prices, the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and allies (OPEC+) decided to advance plans for output increases.

The group now aims to return 411,000 barrels per day to the market in May, up from the previously planned 135,000 barrels per day.

A ruling by a Russian court that the Caspian Pipeline Consortium’s (CPC) Black Sea export terminal facilities should not be suspended also pressured prices lower. This decision could avert a potential fall in Kazakhstan’s oil production and supplies.