r/IntellectualDarkWeb • u/Desperate-Fan695 • 3d ago

Why no tariffs on Russia?

As we learned yesterday, Trump's calculated "tariffs charged" by foreign countries aren't actually tariffs but rather based on trade deficits with a minimum of 10%.

The tariffs apply to 185 different countries and territories. Even extending to remote, uninhabited islands that have no trade with the US.

So the question I have... why not Russia? Not only do we still trade with Russia, we have a 2.5 billion dollar trade deficit with them. By Trumps own criteria, they should have been on the list. It seems we're really not beating the claims of allegiance to Putin.

112 Upvotes

79% Upvoted

206 comments sorted by

View all comments

20

u/OursIsTheRepost SlayTheDragon 3d ago

“The White House, through Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, explained to Axios that Russia was excluded from the reciprocal tariffs list because existing U.S. sanctions, imposed following Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine, already "preclude any meaningful trade" between the two countries. This aligns with statements from Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, who told Fox News on April 2, 2025, that the U.S. does not trade meaningfully with Russia due to these sanctions, suggesting that tariffs would be redundant.”

31

u/Desperate-Fan695 3d ago

So what about the hundred other countries on the list that do less trade than Russia? Wish reporters would ask these questions.

16

u/higgsbison312 3d ago

Because whatever trade there is with Russia, it cannot be touched or messed with. Thats why it’s survived the sanctions. Probably has to do with some protected sectors. I believe it was uranium or some shit like that.

6

u/Sevsquad 3d ago

Do you think we don't have critical trade with any of the other countries we've levied these tariffs at? Do you know where Steel and Alluminum come from?