Reluctant To Drop Its “Economic Bunker Buster” On China, India, & Russia
Andrew Korybko
Andrew Korybko's Newsletter
It’s unrealistic to expect the US to maintain 500% tariffs on China and India for their purchase of Russian oil, which would also ruin its trade talks with them and derail the Ukrainian peace process.
Senator Lindsey Graham recently said that his bill to impose 500% tariffs on every country that imports Russian resources is “an economic bunker buster against China, India, and Russia”, yet for all his tough talk, the US is still reluctant to drop it.
The Wall Street Journal reported that the Trump Administration is “quietly pressuring” the Senate to water down the legislation by “turn[ing] the word ‘shall’ into ‘may’ wherever it appears in the bill’s text, removing the mandatory nature of the prescribed reprimands”.
Their report was lent credence by Graham himself proposing an exemption for countries that aid Ukraine, thus averting an unprecedented US-EU trade war in the event that his bill passes into law. Trump’s remark to Politico in mid-June about how “sanctions cost us a lot of money” suggests that he’s not interested in going this route, with Secretary of State Marco Rubio later telling them that sanctions could derail the Ukrainian peace process, though he also didn’t rule them out in the future.


















