US President Donald Trump has called on NATO and EU member states to hit China and India with tariffs of up to 100 percent to force Russian President Vladimir Putin to end the war in Ukraine.
China and India buy Russia’s oil, which is helping to keep the Russian economy afloat.
To sidestep the issue, Trump on Saturday asked NATO to impose 50-100 percent tariffs on China to weaken Beijing’s economic grip over Russia.
Can the EU easily impose sanctions on China and India?
At the same time, Turkiye, which is a NATO member, is the third-largest buyer of Russia’s oil products, after China and India.
Trump has urged NATO and EU nations to impose tariffs of up to 100 percent on China and India in order to pressure Russian President Vladimir Putin to halt the conflict in Ukraine.
Trump made his demand during a meeting between U.S. and European Union officials last Tuesday. Trump had previously promised to end the conflict on “day one” of taking office. It is believed that the action is an attempt to hasten a peace agreement between Kyiv and Moscow.
4 items on the list.
China and the US discuss trade in the face of Russian oil threats and the TikTok ban.
List 2 of 4: Prior to US sanctions, Trump calls on NATO nations to cease purchasing Russian oil.
following Russia’s largest airstrike against Ukraine, Trump proposes new sanctions.
list 4 of 4: Key events of the Russia-Ukraine war, day 1,299.
the list’s end.
Trump’s request to Brussels comes after US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent stated that Washington was planning more stringent economic sanctions on Russia but required more European support. The Financial Times newspaper was the first to report on this.
After NATO “agreed … to do the same thing,” Trump stated in a letter published on his Truth Social account on September 13 that he was “ready to do major sanctions on Russia.”. Furthermore, he asserted that higher tariffs on China would make Beijing’s “control” over Russia less effective.
Why is Trump requesting it?
The purchase of Russian oil by China and India keeps the Russian economy afloat.
China, the biggest consumer of Russian energy, imported 109 million tonnes of crude oil last year, accounting for almost 20 percent of its total energy imports, according to data from Chinese customs. In contrast, 15 percent of India’s imports in 2024—88 million tonnes—came from Russia.
Furthermore, Trump has avoided enacting comparable tariffs on China as his administration negotiates a precarious trade agreement with Beijing, even though he recently imposed an additional 25% tariff on India for importing Russian crude.
Trump sidestepped the matter on Saturday by requesting that NATO impose tariffs on China ranging from 50 to 100 percent in order to reduce Beijing’s economic hegemony over Russia.
Trump stated in the letter he posted on Saturday that the suspension of Russian energy purchases along with high tariffs on China would be “very helpful” in bringing the conflict to a close.
Since the beginning of Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Europe has become less dependent on Russian energy. Russia was supplying the EU with 45% of its natural gas imports at the time. This year, that is anticipated to drop to just 13 percent. Trump, however, wants Europe to take more action.
In the midst of increased tensions between Russia and NATO, the US president made these requests. One Russian drone entered Romanian airspace on Saturday, and over a dozen others entered Polish airspace last Wednesday. Romania and Poland are both NATO members.
Moscow played down the incident and claimed it had “no plans to target” Poland, while Warsaw claimed the drone incursion was intentional. In the meantime, Bucharest condemned Moscow’s “irresponsible actions” and hurried fighter jets to intercept the Russian drone on Saturday night.
France and Germany will be moving some military assets eastwards as part of a new NATO mission to strengthen the group’s eastern flank.
Trump said in a Fox News interview last Friday that he was starting to lose patience with Putin after recent in-person meetings in Alaska and in light of Russia’s growing aerial attacks on Ukraine, including its biggest-ever airstrike earlier this month.
Putin’s inability to stop the war has angered the US president, who also stated that he is thinking of imposing more sanctions on Russian energy and banking.
“We must come down with a lot of strength,” Trump declared.
Trump is pushing for allied tariffs against Russia and China at a time when domestic challenges are being made to his own legal authority to impose tariffs under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA). The tariffs “exceed any authority granted to the president,” according to a May ruling by a US trade court. The case is currently en route to the Supreme Court after an appeals court upheld that decision in August.
In November, a ruling regarding the legitimacy of Trump’s tariffs is anticipated.
Can India and China be sanctioned by the EU with ease?
In 2024, Brussels and Beijing’s bilateral goods trade was valued at about 732 billion euros ($860 billion). With a goods trade deficit of approximately 305 billion euros ($359 billion) last year, up from roughly 297 billion euros ($349 billion) in 2023, China is now the EU’s biggest import partner.
To put things in perspective, the United States continues to be Europe’s biggest trading partner. A total of 1 trillion euros ($1 trillion) worth of goods and services were traded between the US and the EU in 2024. In this case, the EU had a 50 billion euro ($59 billion) overall surplus and a goods trade surplus of 198 billion euro ($233 billion).
About 40 percent of Europe’s imports from China are consumer electronics, which are followed by heavy machinery, apparel, and accessories.
Indian imports of goods to Europe are relatively small. In 2024, the EU’s goods trade deficit with India was only 22.5 billion euros ($26 billion), primarily in the form of pharmaceuticals, base metals like iron and steel, and electronic equipment.
As a result, Europe imports a lot of goods from China and imports very little from India. Supply chains in Europe are heavily reliant on imports of Chinese manufacturing.
The EU will probably be hesitant to enact unilateral punitive tariffs since doing so would disrupt manufacturing, raise production costs, and raise consumer prices throughout the EU. This is especially true if the tariffs are suddenly imposed at levels between 50 and 100 percent.
Nonetheless, a few EU nations have openly supported specific actions against China. Finance ministers from the Group of Seven (G7) bloc, which consists of France, Germany, and Italy, called a meeting on September 12 to discuss potential tariffs on nations they believe are “enabling” the war in Ukraine as well as further sanctions on Russia.
In addition, after China and India, Turkiye, a NATO member, is the third-largest consumer of Russian oil products. Other NATO nations that buy Russian oil are Slovakia and Hungary.
And what will occur next?
Shortly after Trump’s September 13 statement to NATO members, Beijing retorted that China neither takes part in nor aids in the planning of wars.
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi stated in a statement from China’s Foreign Affairs Ministry that sanctions only make issues worse and that war cannot resolve them.
U.S. Treasury Secretary Bessent will attempt to defuse trade tensions between the two biggest economies in the world by meeting with China’s Vice Premier He Lifeng in Madrid on Monday.
Trump stated on September 9 that the United States and India were “continuing negotiations to address the trade barriers” between the two nations.
In the upcoming weeks, he intends to meet with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and hopes their trade negotiations will end “successfully,” he posted on social media.
Modi replied that the two nations were “close friends and natural partners,” echoing Trump’s hope that the negotiations would be fruitful.
Modi stated, “Our teams are working to conclude these discussions as soon as possible.”. Speaking with President Trump is something else I am excited about. “”.
