Donald Trump has asked the EU to impose tariffs of up to 100 per cent on India and China as part of a joint effort to increase pressure on Russia to end its war in Ukraine, according to three officials familiar with the matter.
“We’re ready to go, ready to go right now, but we’re only going to do this if our European partners step up with us,” one US official said.
A second US official said Washington was prepared to “mirror” any tariffs on China and India imposed by the EU, potentially leading to a further increase in US levies on imports from both countries.
Trump’s proposal comes amid frustration within the White House at the difficulty of brokering a peace deal and Russia’s increasingly aggressive aerial attacks on Ukraine.
“The president came on this morning, and his view is that the obvious approach here is, let’s all put on dramatic tariffs and keep the tariffs on until the Chinese agree to stop buying the oil. There really aren’t many other places that oil can go,” the first US official said.
Trump later on Tuesday told reporters he expected to have a call with Russian President Vladimir Putin “this week or early next week”.
The move by Trump comes after Putin, Chinese President Xi Jinping and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi cemented their ties at a summit last week.
Asked about Trump’s demand to the EU, a Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson said Beijing was neither an instigator nor a party to the “crisis” in Ukraine and should not be made a scapegoat.
“We . . . firmly oppose the imposition of so-called economic pressure on China,” he said.
The US last month increased tariffs on Indian imports to 50 per cent due to the country’s purchases of Russian oil, raising tensions with the south Asian nation.
On Tuesday evening, Trump wrote on Truth Social that trade negotiations with India would proceed and suggested they would have a “successful conclusion”.
“India, and the United States of America, are continuing negotiations to address the Trade Barriers between our two Nations. I look forward to speaking with my very good friend, Prime Minister Modi, in the upcoming weeks,” he wrote.
Washington has not specifically targeted China because of its purchases of Russian oil. In April, Trump sharply increased tariffs on Chinese imports but scaled them back in May after a severe market backlash.
EU officials, led by the bloc’s sanctions chief David O’Sullivan, participated in the discussions in Washington, which featured senior US Treasury officials.
European capitals were discussing potential secondary sanctions against countries such as China and India for buying Russian oil and gas, officials told the Financial Times this week, but many are nervous given the EU’s trade relations with Beijing and New Delhi.
The European Commission will soon put forward a fresh raft of sanctions against Russia “in co-ordination with partners”, commission president Ursula von der Leyen said on Wednesday, adding that the measures were aimed at “phasing out Russian fossil fuels faster, the shadow fleet and third countries”.
US interior secretary Doug Burgum on Wednesday said that “our policy is to sell our energy to our friends and allies so they don’t buy it from our adversaries”.
“Right now, the two most active conflict areas in the world, both terrorism and the war between Russia and Ukraine, are funded by energy sales. So if we can displace the revenues from that by selling to our friends and allies, then the world benefits.”
US diplomats in Europe have stressed to EU capitals that the Trump administration is not willing to impose punitive measures on buyers of Russian oil and gas without the EU’s participation. Some European countries also continue to purchase Russian energy products for themselves.
“It’s a question of do the Europeans have the political will to bring the war to an end?” the first US official said. “Any of these things will, of course, be costly, and for the president to do it, we need our EU partners and ideally all of our partners with us. And we’ll share the pain together.”
