Russia and Belarus avoid tariffs as Trump launches global trade war

Russia not mentioned anywhere on Trump's list of tariffs. Do you get it now?"

The Lincoln Project, an anti-Trump organization founded by former Republican strategists, wrote on X, formerly Twitter

Jon Cooper (ice hockey)canada coach

Can anyone tell me why Russia is just about the only country—if not the ONLY country—that is exempt from Trump's tariffs?"

Jon Cooper, a former Democratic majority leader of the Suffolk County Legislature in New York, wrote on X

Timothy Garton Ash|

I think just underlines that Trump is desperate to be liked by Putin. Weird on so many levels."

Timothy Ash, an emerging markets strategist at BlueBay Asset Management, told Newsweek

Michael McFaulrussia

I hope the American people get an explanation for this. I find it outrageous."

Michael McFaul, a former U.S. ambassador to Russia who served during the Obama administration, wrote on the platform

We don't trade with Russia and Belarus because of sanctions."

U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent

It is unclear how long the trade war with the U.S. will last… but if it drags on, South America will naturally be the first to benefit,

Sizov said

The U.S. has the most extensive government apparatus in the world dedicated to developing, monitoring and enforcing economic sanctions and export controls,

Voloshin said

Russia benefits from retaliatory Chinese restrictions on the said group of U.S. goods,

said Marina Amurskaya, head of the international business department at Russia’s Financial University

Beijing has long adhered to a policy of diversifying energy sources, and Russian supplies already have a significant share of the Chinese oil and coal market,

analyst Alexander Firanchuk told RBC

If the whole world gets involved in a trade war, everyone will certainly not care about Russia and Ukraine,

economist Dmitry Nekrasov said when describing the scale of potential confrontation between the U.S. and other large economies

Perhaps the supply of animal products from Russia will be a little more active, and perhaps Beijing will return to the issue of full admission of Russian wheat to its market,

he added

Whether it's the U.S. Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control or the Commerce Department's Bureau of Industry and Security, their personnel have little to do with trade disputes or pure trade measures, such as U.S. tariff policy,

he said

However, with the U.S. remaining the world's only true superpower, such a scenario is unlikely. China is visibly interested in mending ties with the U.S., or at the very least avoiding an escalation of bilateral tensions,

he said

My fellow Americans, this is liberation day, we've been waiting for a long time,

Trump said

Sanctions, not tariffs, limit Russia’s economy, targeting finance, energy, and defense, causing recessions in 2015-16. With minimal trade (exports $526M, imports $3B), tariffs aren’t needed. The list focuses on big trade partners like China, not sanctioned nations like Russia, handled via geopolitical tools instead,

the xAI flagship bot added

The increase in import duties in the USA and the retaliatory measures by other countries have raised the risks of a slowdown in global economic growth and an acceleration of inflation,

the Russian regulator said

Expectations of lower global demand are already putting pressure on prices in commodity markets. The risks that oil prices in the coming years will be lower than the February baseline forecast have somewhat increased,

it added

The strengthening of the rouble could have occurred due to increased interest in Russian assets amid an improvement in the geopolitical situation. This interest might have been driven by a higher key interest rate in Russia compared to rates in other countries,

it said