Law allows 100% tariffs on Chinese purchases of Russian energy
President Donald Trump on Friday signed into law the Lindsey O Graham Sanctioning Russia and Iran Act, legislation that imposes sweeping new sanctions on Russia and grants the president expanded authority to impose tariffs on countries that continue buying Russian energy or that help Moscow evade existing restrictions. The House of Representatives passed the bill two days earlier in a bipartisan 262-159 vote.
According to the Guardian, the bill is aimed at pressing Russia to end its four-and-a-half-year war against Ukraine and at depleting Russia’s ability to continue funding that war by targeting its natural gas and oil revenues. The measure also targets countries that continue to buy Russian energy.
Named for Sen. Lindsey Graham, the Republican senator who died in July, the legislation imposes new sanctions on Russian political and military officials and on foreign networks that help supply Russia’s war machine or evade existing restrictions. It also targets Russia’s fleet of “shadow tankers,” which have allowed the country to continue shipping crude oil around the world despite sanctions already in place on Russian energy exports.
The Trump administration had previously expressed doubt about imposing additional sanctions on Moscow, the Guardian reported, but shifted its stance after repeated attempts to end the four-and-a-half-year war against Ukraine stalled.
The legislation gives the president broad discretion over its implementation. It permits Trump to impose tariffs of up to 100% on buyers of Russian energy, including China, and on other countries that help Moscow evade sanctions. The bill also leaves with the president the determination of which countries could face tariffs, which tariff rates could be imposed, and whether sanctions provisions can be waived against particular countries.
Many Democrats criticized the bill’s broad provisions, arguing that the measure gives Trump excessive authority to resort to tariffs, which he has already imposed on multiple countries despite a U.S. Supreme Court ruling prohibiting him from doing so under the 1977 International Emergency Economic Powers Act.
The shift in the administration’s posture came as Russia’s four-and-a-half-year war against Ukraine continued without a diplomatic resolution. The legislation hands the president a range of tools — from direct sanctions on Russian officials to tariffs on countries that continue to purchase Russian energy — that the executive branch can deploy.