Trump Prepares Punishment For China For Buying Russian Oil

The U.S. may impose additional trade duties.

The United States may impose additional trade duties on China over the country's purchases of Russian oil, President Donald Trump announced on August 6 after signing an executive order on similar additional duties for India.

"It could happen... I can't say [for sure] yet. We've done it with India. We'll probably do it with a couple other countries. One of them could be China," Trump told reporters after his special envoy Steve Whitkoff met with President Vladimir Putin in Moscow to discuss ending the war in Ukraine. The increased duties on Russia's trading partners, which buy Russian energy and allow the Kremlin to provide funding for the invasion, are one of Trump's key tools for forcing Moscow to make peace.

Trump did not provide any details about the new duties on China. However, on Wednesday, the White House head imposed additional 25 percent tariffs on Indian goods on top of the previously announced 25 percent levies, emphasizing that the country continues to buy oil from Russian Federation (thus the total trade duties on Indian goods reached 50 percent). The new tariff will take effect in 21 days, during which time the decree can be canceled or revised if Russia stops its aggression against Ukraine.

Last week, the possibility of imposing new duties on China if it continues to buy Russian oil was also announced by US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent.

Any additional trade tariffs on Chinese imports would increase the already high rates that have crimped China's exports to the U.S. in recent months, Bloomberg noted. The move is likely to trigger retaliatory measures from Beijing.

China has become the largest buyer of oil from Russia since the outbreak of the Ukrainian war because of sweeping sanctions against Russia's oil industry by the EU and the US. Two-thirds of supplies go to China from Russian fields via the Skovorodino-Mohe and Atasu-Alashankou pipelines, with the rest transported by sea. Beijing mainly buys sea shipments of ESPO Blend and Sokol grades, which are shipped from Far Eastern ports and targeted at the Asian market.

China buys about 2 million barrels of oil per day from Russia out of about 5 million total exports, according to state customs data. India is the second largest buyer of Russian oil (about 1.8 million bpd), followed by Turkey with about 400,000 bpd.

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