Trump’s 100% tariff was waived the same day

The Trump administration has built a remarkably flexible rulebook for Russian energy: punish countries that buy it, unless Washington itself finds the fuel useful.

A White House order signed on October 16 authorised a 100% tariff on goods from the five largest buyers of Russian crude oil or natural gas, if they made new purchases after October 18. The same order then waived the relevant duties and sanctions provisions, saying the waiver was in the “national interests of the United States”. The tariff was authorised and waived in the same document. Efficiency, of a sort.

The timing is difficult to miss. On October 9, Donald Trump announced an arrangement with Vladimir Putin for Russia to supply more than 300,000 tonnes of diesel immediately, 500,000 tonnes in November, 1 million tonnes thereafter and another 3 million tonnes “within a short period of time”. The US Treasury also issued a temporary licence allowing certain Russian diesel cargoes to move until April 2027. The public record does not establish that the fuel was delivered, who would pay for it or that the United States had already imported it.

India’s Russian-oil purchases had earlier triggered a 25% additional US tariff, which Washington removed in February after saying India had committed to stop importing Russian oil and buy more US energy. On October 20, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the India–US trade agreement was “very, very close” but still not executed. The timing does not prove that the October waiver was granted to secure that agreement, or that India was one of the five countries covered by the new tariff mechanism. It does show the principle: Russian fuel was punishable when India bought it, and waivable when Washington wanted it. The BJP-led US administration has not discovered consistency; it has discovered an exemption for itself.