Bessent: Europeans 'Need to Join' on Russia-Related Secondary Tariffs
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent urged the Group of Seven nations to follow the U.S. in imposing secondary tariffs on countries that continue to buy Russian oil, including possibly China.
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Bessent, speaking on Bloomberg TV Aug. 13, said he raised the issue with G7 leaders at a recent meeting in Canada. He said the leaders spoke about a bipartisan U.S. bill that would authorize 500% tariffs on countries that buy energy products from Russia (see 2507090023).
“I looked at all the leaders around the table, and I said, is everyone at this table willing to put a 200% secondary tariff on China? And you know what? Everybody wanted to see what kind of shoes they were wearing,” he said. “It's put up or shut up time. The president is creating his own leverage. We need the Europeans to come in and help create more leverage.”
The U.S. has so far announced secondary tariffs only on goods from India (see 2508060018).
“The Europeans are in the wings, harping about how we should do it, what [we should do],” Bessent said. “But the Europeans need to join us in these sanctions. The Europeans need to be willing to put on these secondary sanctions.”