US President Donald Trump has urged the European Union to impose 100% tariffs on China and India as a strategy to pressure Russian President Vladimir Putin, the Financial Times reported on Tuesday.
The president made the demand after dialing into a high-level meeting between senior US and EU officials in Washington, where both sides were weighing fresh options to escalate economic pressure on Russia, the Financial Times reported.
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“We’re ready to go, ready to go right now, but we’re only going to do this if our European partners step up with us,” one US official said, signaling that Washington wants Brussels to move in tandem.
Trump, speaking directly to negotiators, laid out his strategy in blunt terms. “The obvious approach here is, let’s all put on dramatic tariffs and keep the tariffs on until the Chinese agree to stop buying the oil. There really aren’t many other places that oil can go,” he argued.
A second US official said the administration was willing to “mirror” any tariffs imposed by the EU, meaning that Washington could move to increase duties on Indian and Chinese imports at the same scale.
The proposal underscores the White House’s growing frustration over the difficulty of securing a peace settlement as Russia intensifies aerial bombardments across Ukraine. Trump’s message was clear: the US and Europe must use trade tools to squeeze the Kremlin by targeting the nations still purchasing large volumes of Russian crude.
By pushing for coordinated tariffs, Trump is betting that a transatlantic front can sever Russia’s key economic lifeline — and he wants Europe to take the leap with him.
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