On Thursday, Donald Trump announced punitive new reciprocal tariffs on imports from 185 countries around the world. Russia and its ally Belarus are conspicuously among the few countries that are exempt from the US president's list. Ukraine, however, is not.

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told Fox News that existing sanctions meant that there was no trade with Russia anyway. Following Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the US and other countries, particularly those in Europe, ramped up already ongoing sanctions against Russia. White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt underscored that the US sanctions in conjunction with the war in Ukraine would prevent "any meaningful trade" with Russia. But is this really true?

According to the United States Census Bureau, trade with Russia has slumped dramatically since it began its full-scale invasion of Ukraine: from around $36 billion (€32.9 billion) in 2021 to around $3.5 billion (€3.2 billion) in 2024.

Bessent's claim that there is no trade with Russia therefore fails to reflect the reality that imports from the country, reduced as they may be,........

© Deutsche Welle