The roles have changed: now the US is ready for a trade war for Ukraine, while Europe is freezing
10 September 2025 11:42
US President Donald Trump has called on the European Union to impose 100% tariffs on India and China to increase pressure on Russia over the ongoing war in Ukraine. This was reported by the Financial Times, citing three informed sources, "Komersant Ukrainian" reports.
According to the newspaper, the American leader made this demand during a meeting of high-ranking US and European officials in Washington, where they discussed joint measures to put pressure on Moscow. The American side made it clear that it is also ready to impose one hundred percent duties on buyers of Russian energy resources, but only if supported by European partners.
A representative of the US administration said that the US would “mirror” any duties that the EU imposes on China and India. According to him, the president believes that the obvious approach is to impose tough duties and keep them in place until China agrees to stop buying oil. The official emphasized that there are not many other destinations for Russian oil exports.
Earlier, the United States raised duties on Indian goods to 50% due to the purchase of Russian oil. According to the Washington Post, Trump refused to discuss a trade deal with India to reduce duties until New Delhi gives up Russian fuel. At the same time, the day before, the head of the White House said on Truth Social that he would continue negotiations with India to remove trade barriers between the countries.
According to the Financial Times, the EU countries are considering imposing secondary sanctions against China and India. However, such a measure raises concerns about the potential deterioration of relations with Beijing and New Delhi. Bloomberg reported that the EU may include secondary restrictions on Russia’s trading partners in the 19th package of sanctions against Russia.
U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has previously called on Europe to follow the U.S. lead in putting pressure on countries that buy Russian energy.
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What the EU is ready to do for Ukraine
At the Munich Security Conference, the United States made it clear to the European Union that Europe’s security is its own problem. After that, the rhetoric of European officials for several days was filled with loud statements that it was time for Europe to wake up and finally start taking care of its own security.
In the context of the Russian-Ukrainian war, European leaders were racing to generate ideas about how they would support Ukraine and how they would help it achieve a just peace. They talked about peacekeepers (who would be in the rear), about closing the skies over Ukraine with British aircraft, about Taurus missiles, and even about the fact that a significant part of the planned 800 billion-dollar EU defense package would go to Ukraine.
A common position on peacekeepers was not reached, talks about Taurus missiles stopped, and meanwhile the EU is making decisions and taking actions that can hardly be called helping Ukraine defend Europe.
Just a few days after the Munich conference, it turned out that Belgium would hand over 30 F-16s to Ukraine not by the end of 2025, as planned and promised, but by the end of 2028. The reason was announced: The United States is delaying the delivery of F-35s, which are supposed to replace the F-16s in the Belgian military fleet. 30 F-16s is a significant number, and they could significantly improve Ukraine’s position in the sky, including a very significant boost to its air defense system. Now Ukraine cannot count on these aircraft until 2028.
Later, it became known that the approved 800 billion euro defense package for Ukraine did not include anything specific. It only mentions that Ukrainian defense companies are part of the same “pool” as European ones, which means that purchasing weapons from them is a priority along with EU companies.
It also turned out that during the third year of the full-scale Russian-Ukrainian war, the EU spent more money on Russian fossil fuels than on financial assistance to Ukraine. During this time, the EU bought 21.9 billion euros worth of Russian oil and gas. This amount is one-sixth higher than the 18.7 billion euros that the EU has allocated to Ukraine as financial aid in 2024.
Free trade between the EU and Ukraine is also virtually gone.
In this context, the EU’s decision not to spoil its relations with China and India for the sake of Ukraine seems quite logical.
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