New York/Washington: US President
Donald Trump on Saturday said NATO countries should impose 50 to 100 per cent
tariffs on China and stop buying oil from Russia to help end the Ukraine
conflict. Trump’s post on Truth Social comes a day after the US asked G7
countries to impose tariffs on countries purchasing oil from Russia.
In his post, Trump said he is ready to
impose “major sanctions” on Russia when all NATO countries agree and start to
do the same thing and stop buying oil from Moscow.
The US president said that
NATO’s commitment to win has been “far less than 100%, and the purchase of
Russian oil, by some, has been shocking!”.
“It greatly weakens your negotiating
position, and bargaining power, over Russia,” he said.
Trump said that he is ready to “go
ahead” when the NATO countries are. The president said that the 50 per cent to
100 per cent tariffs on China will also be of “great help in ending this
deadly, but ridiculous war”.
“China has a strong control, and even
grip, over Russia, and these powerful tariffs will break that grip,” he said.
Trump also said that the Ukraine war is “not his conflict” and it would never
have started if he was president.
“It is Biden’s and Zelenskyy’s war. I
am only here to help stop it, and save thousands of Russian and Ukrainian
lives…If NATO does as I say, the war will end quickly, and all of those lives
will be saved! If not, you are just wasting my time, and the time, energy, and
money of the United States,” he said.
The US has imposed an additional 30 per
cent tax on imports from China while Beijing has responded with a 10 per cent
tax on imports from Washington. At one point, Trump raised tariffs on Chinese
imports to 145 per cent before the two countries agreed in May to end the
tit-for-tat tariff war.
On Friday, US Treasury Secretary Scott
Bessent and the United States Trade Representative Ambassador Jamieson Greer
were on a call with G7 finance ministers when they reiterated President Trump's
call to the bloc's partners about imposing tariffs on countries purchasing oil
from Russia.