Russia and Belarus avoid tariffs as Trump launches global trade war

Russia and Belarus were two of just a handful of countries that avoided having additional tariffs imposed on their exports to the United States on Wednesday as Donald Trump launched a global trade war by announcing duties on goods from over 180 countries.

Branding the occasion US “Liberation Day”, Trump announced a blanket 10% tariff on all foreign goods entering the US from Saturday, as well as additional import duties of up to 50% on items from 60 countries, including 34% on imports from China and 20% on those from the EU, which are due to come into force on Wednesday.

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt both later said that Russia and Belarus, as well as long-time US adversaries North Korea and Cuba, would not be affected by new tariffs due to existing sanctions against them.

“They are already facing extremely high tariffs and our previously imposed sanctions preclude any meaningful trade with these countries”, an unnamed White House official told The New York Times, though Leavitt stressed that Russia could yet face “additional strong sanctions” in future.

Nevertheless, other heavily sanctioned countries such as Iran and Syria were targeted with additional tariffs on Wednesday, as were a number of remote island territories including Tokelau, Svalbard, and the uninhabited Australian territory of Heard Island and McDonald Islands.

Russian exports to the US plummeted by around 90% after the start of the full-scale war in Ukraine and were worth just $3.5 billion in 2024, the lowest level since the collapse of the Soviet Union, with once-lucrative Russian oil exports to the US having been phased out in 2023.

Since returning to the White House in January, Trump has touted the possibility of renewed US trade with Russia as his administration pushes for a ceasefire in Ukraine. However, on Sunday he threatened to impose tariffs of up to 50% on any country that purchased oil from Russia should the Kremlin block a deal to end the war.

As Trump announced the ruinous tariffs on many US allies on Wednesday, close Putin adviser and head of Russia’s sovereign wealth fund Kirill Dmitriev met with Trump’s Special Envoy Steve Witkoff in Washington, becoming the first Kremlin official to visit the US since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.