Trump to gain sweeping tariff powers under late senator's Russia sanctions bill

American lawmakers are preparing to introduce legislation as early as this week that would vest President Donald Trump with the power to impose tariffs of up to 100 per cent on the five largest purchasers of Russian oil and gas, with China and India understood to occupy the foremost positions on the intended target list, according to sources cited by The Wall Street Journal. The bill, advanced by the late Senator Lindsey Graham before his death, would extend beyond sovereign states to encompass physical and legal entities facilitating such energy shipments, though the final decision on whether to activate these measures would rest entirely with the president, who would be bound by no statutory obligation to do so. Analysts consulted by the newspaper have suggested that the proposed law would mark the first occasion on which Congress has sanctioned the use of tariffs as a direct instrument of geopolitical leverage, a role historically reserved for countering unfair trading practices rather than advancing foreign policy objectives.

The current text, it is understood, represents a compromise forged over more than a year of negotiations between senators and the executive branch, with earlier drafts having contemplated tariffs as high as 500 per cent on goods originating from any nation continuing to purchase Russian oil, gas and uranium. The White House, however, objected to mandatory congressional sanctions and insisted upon maximal presidential discretion, thereby ensuring that any application of the measure would remain subject to executive prerogative rather than legislative mandate. It is precisely this latitude, however, that has stirred unease among the president's political opponents, who contend that the powers conferred by the bill could be turned to purposes far removed from the stated aim of pressuring the Kremlin. Edward Fishman, a former senior sanctions official who spoke to the Journal, voiced particular concern that the legislation might be exploited as a vehicle for waging indiscriminate trade disputes against both friends and foes, with little regard for the original rationale. In his assessment, secondary sanctions targeting the refineries, banks and traders that service Russian oil exports would constitute a far more effective and precisely calibrated response than the blunt instrument of secondary tariffs.

For Moscow, the implications of the bill are potentially severe, given that Beijing and New Delhi together account for the lion's share of its energy export revenues, at a moment when Russian crude is already struggling to find buyers, with some 135 million barrels said to be languishing in tankers at sea. Nevertheless, observers caution that a considerable gulf separates the mere introduction of the legislation from the actual imposition of tariffs; Democratic lawmakers, for their part, are said to harbour deep reservations about granting additional executive authority to a president they view as unpredictable, and in any event the final decision on enforcement would fall to Mr Trump himself. The coming weeks, therefore, are likely to witness intense debate on Capitol Hill over the balance between strategic necessity and the perils of untrammelled presidential power, as the legacy of the late senator Graham collides with the fraught politics of Russia sanctions in an election year.