By David Lawder
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. Treasury on Friday called on Group of Seven and European Union allies to impose “meaningful tariffs” on goods from China and India to halt their purchases of Russian oil and convened an emergency G7 finance meeting to discuss efforts to step up pressure on Moscow to end its war in Ukraine.
“Chinese and Indian purchases of Russian oil are funding Putin’s war machine and prolonging the senseless killing of the Ukrainian people,” a U.S. Treasury spokesperson said in an emailed statement to Reuters.
“Earlier this week, we made it clear to our EU allies that if they are serious about ending the war in their own backyard, they need to join us and impose meaningful tariffs that will be rescinded the day the war ends,” the spokesperson added.
President Donald Trump has imposed an extra 25% tariff on imports from India to pressure New Delhi to halt its purchases of discounted Russian crude oil, bringing total punitive duties on Indian goods to 50% and souring trade negotiations between the two democracies.
But Trump has refrained from imposing additional tariffs on Chinese imports over China’s purchases of Russian oil, as his administration navigates a delicate trade truce with Beijing that has brought down retaliatory tariffs from over 100%.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent is due to travel to Madrid on Friday for another round of talks with his Chinese counterpart, Vice Premier He Lifeng, that will cover trade issues, Washington’s demands for Chinese-owned TikTok to divest its U.S. operations, and anti-money laundering issues.
Trump earlier on Friday said that his patience with Russian President Vladimir Putin was running out, but stopped short of threatening new sanctions on Russia during a Fox News interview.
Trump expressed frustration in the interview about Putin’s failure to halt the war despite Trump’s peacemaking efforts. Trump said sanctions on banks and oil were an option to increase along with tariffs to increase pressure on Russia, but added that European countries also needed to participate.
“We’re going to have to come down very, very strong,” Trump said.
The Treasury spokesperson said that G7 partners also needed to increase pressure on Russia.
“President Trump’s Peace and Prosperity Administration is ready, and our G7 partners need to step up with us,” the spokesperson added.
(Reporting by David Lawder; Editing by Mark Porter and Franklin Paul)
