Bessent accuses Europe of refusing secondary tariffs on India, China

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said that European countries refused to comply with US request to impose secondary tariffs on India and China for buying Russian energy. “In the spring, I asked our European allies to join us in putting secondary tariffs on China, on India. Speaking on NBC's Meet the Press, he said, "So why should the US bear the burden?"

Bessent said Europe is undercutting its own position. Of 140 cargoes that left Russia's Yamal facility in the first six months of the year, he said, 136 went to Belgium, Spain, France and the Netherlands, "over $8 billion." He said Europeans "have given Russia and Vladimir Putin more money than they've given the Ukrainians" and are "financing the Russian war machine."

The interview followed President Trump's executive order on Friday waiving a new Russia sanctions measure. Host Kristen Welker asked why Trump was "rewarding a dictator who invaded Ukraine." Bessent said Trump wants the killing to stop and that the so-called Graham bill “gives him 60 days to assess the situation.”

Welker noted that Bessent had criticised the Biden administration's sanctions as not "fulsome enough" at his January 2025 confirmation hearing, and asked whether Trump was now doing the same thing. Bessent said Biden doubled sanctions on the way out in January 2025 and Trump did not roll them back. He said Trump then "sanctioned the two largest Russian energy companies, Rosneft and Lukoil, which dealt a catastrophic blow to the Russian energy industry."

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"So no one has been tougher on Russian sanctions than President Trump," he said. When Welker said he was pushing for tougher sanctions still, he replied, "We did the toughest sanctions."

Pressed on why sanctions were being lifted, Bessent said, "No sanctions were lifted on Friday." He said the only thing lifted was the diesel embargo, and noted that the UK in May waived its own embargo on diesel and jet fuel made with Russian crude. "Where's the outrage for the rest of the world?" he asked.

He said the US imports $4 billion of Russian products, $1.8 billion of it fertiliser, while "Europeans import more than ten times that."

On whether Washington is siding with Russia, he called that "a false binary." He said the US provides Ukraine with intelligence via Starlink and lets NATO buy US arms and resell them to Ukraine. He asked why Germany isn't giving Ukraine Patriots. He said Zelensky should be "very careful" about claims that Washington slowed Starlink.