WASHINGTON — The tariffs Congress wrote to squeeze the biggest buyers of Russian oil will not start on Sunday, because President Donald Trump waived them on Friday evening, before the first one could land.
An executive order posted on the White House website sets aside the duties and many of the sanctions in the Russia-Iran sanctions law Trump signed on September 18. It leans on a clause that lets a president suspend the law if he certifies to Congress that doing so serves the national interest, and the order says he has sent that certification. The waivers last until Trump or the secretary of state decide “further action is appropriate.”
The text shows how much was parked. Section 2 restates the penalties, including a 500 percent duty on goods from Russia and a 100 percent duty on any of the five largest importers of Russian crude or gas that made new purchases on or after October 18. Section 4 then waives the duties and the sanctions provisions it lists, sparing only measures imposed under earlier executive orders. Section 3 tells the US trade representative to keep watching who buys Russian energy and to report back.
The order never mentions diesel, Ukraine or Vladimir Putin, yet the timing follows the Russian diesel deal. A week earlier Trump announced an arrangement with Putin for more Russian diesel, and Treasury issued a license for Russian-origin diesel running to April 7, 2027, RFE/RL reported. The White House order offers no reason beyond the national interest.
Congress had already pushed the other way. Twelve senators from both parties wrote on Tuesday that the diesel deal “damages American security interests and is a betrayal of the people of Ukraine,” CBS News reported, and urged Trump to use the law’s powers against Russia instead. He did the opposite.
Moscow has been slower to turn the deal into cargoes. Russian officials said on Wednesday that no Russian diesel contract with the US had been signed yet.
Kyiv is the other party exposed. CBS News also reported that after Trump announced an energy ceasefire last weekend, Volodymyr Zelenskyy first agreed and then said that, with Russian attacks continuing, Ukraine would no longer hold off on striking Russian refineries.
What the order does not show is the reasoning. The White House page carries the order but not the certification or the report to Congress that it says went with it, so the stated national interest rests on papers the public has not seen. Neither the Kremlin nor Kyiv had commented on the waiver in the sources checked early Saturday, and the order itself is silent on what Congress can do if it wants the tariffs back.
