Donald Trump has asked the EU to impose tariffs of up to 100% on India and China as part of an effort to force the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, to end the war in Ukraine.
The US president made the demand during a meeting between US and EU officials discussing options to increase economic pressure on Russia on Tuesday, according to a White House official.
One US official told The Financial Times that Trump administration was “ready to go, ready to go right now, but we are only going to do this if our European partners step up with us”.
Trump’s proposal comes amid his frustration at brokering a peace deal, including at a high-profile summit with Putin in Alaska, and amid Russia’s increasing drone attacks, including its largest ever air attack on Ukraine last week.
After the meeting in Washington, Trump told reporters he expected to have a call with the Russian president “this week or early next week”.
The move by Trump follows Putin strengthening his relationship with his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, and India’s prime minister, Narenda Modi, at a showpiece summit in China.
Last month, the US increased tariffs on Indian imports to 50% in response to the country’s purchases of Russian oil.
On Tuesday, Trump wrote on his social media platform that trade negotiations with India would proceed.
“India, and the United States of America, are continuing negotiations to address the Trade Barriers between our two Nations,” he wrote on Truth Social. “I look forward to speaking with my very good friend, Prime Minister Modi, in the upcoming weeks. I feel certain that there will be no difficulty in coming to a successful conclusion for both of our Great Countries!”
EU officials, led by the bloc’s sanctions chief, David O’Sullivan, participated in the discussions in Washington, which featured senior US Treasury officials.
The pressure from Trump comes at a pivotal moment for his tariff policies. In May, the US trade court ruled that the tariffs “exceed any authority granted to the president”. A federal appeals court upheld that ruling at the end of August, and the case is now heading to the supreme court.
The supreme court hearing is set to hear the case in the first week in November and the tariffs remain in place ahead of its ruling. But the uncertain future of Trump’s tariffs has complicated the administration’s negotiations with trading nations and threatens to leave the US with a huge bill should the court rule against them.
On Sunday, Scott Bessent, the US treasury secretary, said he was “confident” that the administration would win its case at the supreme court, although legal experts are divided and the lower courts have consistently ruled against them.
Bessent has said the US would have to refund tens of billions of dollars in tariffs should the court rule them illegal. “We would have to give a refund on about half the tariffs, which would be terrible for the treasury,” Bessent said in an interview Sunday on NBC’s Meet the Press.
