Trump signed an executive order in response to the threat, that uses trade policy to try to pressure Russia into stopping its war with Ukraine.
‘I have received additional information from various senior officials on, among other things, the actions of the Government of the Russian Federation with respect to the situation in Ukraine,’ states the order announced on Wednesday.
‘After considering this additional information, among other things, I find that the national emergency described in Executive Order 14066 continues and that the actions and policies of the Government of the Russian Federation continue to pose an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security and foreign policy of the United States.’
In order ‘to deal with the national emergency’, Trump imposed a new tariff on imports from India, as a penalty for purchasing Russian Federation oil. An additional 25% tariff will take effect later in August, on top of a 25% tariff Trump announced last week that will start on Thursday. That doubles tariffs on India to 50%.
India’s foreign ministry responded to Trump’s announcement by stating it is ‘extremely unfortunate that the US should choose to impose additional tariffs on India for actions that several other countries are also taking in their own national interest’.
The order directs the Trump administration to identify any other countries that are importing oil from Russia and determine if they should also be slapped with similar tariffs.
It came as US Special Envoy Steve Witkoff met with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow. The two met for around three hours, according to Russian state media.
‘On our part, in particular on the Ukrainian issue, some signals were transmitted,’ stated Ushakov.
‘Now the situation is such that our president has complete information – that is, our signals, the signals from President Trump – and the results of these conversations have not yet been reported to Trump…
‘Let’s see when Witkoff will be able to report to Trump about the conversation that took place today.’
