By Alicia Diaz
President Donald Trump waived massive tariffs linked to Russian energy exports mandated in a law that he signed last month, as the measures complicated his push to lower diesel prices ahead of the US midterm elections.
Trump invoked a waiver clause under the law, which was championed by the late Senator Lindsey Graham as a way to punish Russia for its invasion of Ukraine. The law also codified and expanded sanctions targeting Moscow.
“I am hereby waiving the application of such sanctions, restrictions, and duties provided for in the Graham Act. I have submitted to the Congress a certification that the issuance of such a waiver at this time is in the national interests of the United States,” Trump said in an executive order released late Friday.
The directive does formally impose the tariffs, while suspending their implementation, meaning that Trump could apply them at another time if he chooses.
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The measure gave Trump 30 days to impose 100 per cent tariffs on all goods from the top five buyers of Russian crude. It would also slap sanctions on numerous Russian entities and impose 500 per cent tariffs on all US imports of Russian energy products. That one-month deadline was set to expire on Oct. 18.
Those provisions conflict with his plan — announced last week — to work with Russian President Vladimir Putin to release the country’s diesel supplies into global markets. Trump is seeking to lower US diesel prices that are hovering at record highs weeks before the Nov. 3 elections.
Waiving the tariffs risks fresh pushback from members of Congress, including many Republicans who were outraged by his decision on Russian diesel. A bipartisan group of senators signed a letter this week demanding that Trump rescind the deal with Putin and enforce the provisions of the Graham law.
Waiving the law also avoids a potential clash with the top purchasers of Russian energy products, China, India and Turkey.
Graham, a South Carolina Republican and longtime champion of Ukraine, wrote the bill before he died in July, and its passage was seen as a way of honoring him. Graham had repeatedly called such sanctions the key to bringing Putin to the negotiating table to end his full-scale invasion of Ukraine, which is in its fifth year.