Bessent Calls on EU to Follow If US Imposes Russia-Related Secondary Sanctions, Tariffs
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent suggested the White House may be in favor of a bill that would authorize new sanctions and tariffs against Russia’s supporters, and he urged the EU to put in place similar measures.
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The bipartisan legislation, which has more than 80 co-sponsors in both the House and Senate, would sanction a broad range of actors, including senior Russian officials, supporters of the Russian government, and financial institutions and other entities affiliated with that government if Moscow refuses to negotiate a peace agreement with Ukraine (see 2507090023). It also would impose a 500% tariff on imported goods from countries that buy Russian oil, gas, uranium and other products.
Bessent, speaking on CNBC July 21, called the bill “groundbreaking.” But he stopped short of formally endorsing it.
“President [Donald] Trump has single-handedly changed the paradigm here, because … any country who buys sanctioned Russian oil is going to be subject to” secondary tariffs,” Bessent said. “So now the United States Senate agrees with President Trump that tariffs are a means to political ends, and this is revolutionary.”
He also said the legislation should be a signal to the EU to follow with similar secondary sanctions and tariffs. “I would urge our European allies who have talked a big game to follow us if we implement these secondary tariffs.”
Condoleezza Rice, who was secretary of state during the George W. Bush administration, said the secondary sanctions and tariffs “would be very hard to enforce” and said the Trump administration is unlikely to endorse the bill as currently written. Although the legislation would allow Trump to waive any new tariffs for 180 days, Rice said Trump wants to be given more leeway.
“I do believe that one reason the administration has not fully backed” the bill “is they would actually like some kind of waiver so that they could make decisions about what to do,” she said during the recent Aspen Security Forum. “If you just have a blanket [tariff and sanctions requirement] and they're forced to do things, it doesn't give the president much negotiating leverage.”
Under that scenario, the threat of secondary sanctions and tariffs, even if Trump doesn’t use those measures, may be enough to dissuade countries from purchasing Russian oil, Rice said.
“Now, if you're China, however, with an economy that's not in great stakes, or you are India, which really doesn't want to be on the wrong side of this, maybe you start thinking about whether that discounted Russian oil is really worth it under the threat of secondary sanctions,” she said. “So perhaps you never even impose them, you just use the threat of them and I think that may be a bit of what is is emerging.”
Bessent also said the U.S. is preparing to begin trade talks with Beijing “in the very near future” now that the two sides have settled their dispute over China’s export restrictions on critical minerals and U.S. curbs over Nvidia H20 chips (see 2507150013). Bessent said he hopes those talks cover Chinese purchases of sanctioned Russian and Iranian oil.
“The Chinese, unfortunately, are very large purchasers of sanctioned Iranian oil, sanctioned Russian oil,” he said. “So we could start discussing that.”