President Donald Trump on Monday threatened to impose "secondary tariffs" on Russia's trade partners "at about 100%" if President Vladimir Putin does not agree to a deal to end his invasion of Ukraine in 50 days.
"We're very, very unhappy with them, and we're going to be doing very severe tariffs, if you don't have a deal in 50 days, tariffs at about 100%, they call them secondary tariffs," Trump said from the White House while meeting with NATO's secretary general, Mark Rutte.
The president said that he is "disappointed" with Putin, because he thought they would have had a deal months ago.
If a ceasefire deal is not reached by September, said Trump, "we're going to be doing secondary tariffs."
Trump also announced Monday that the United States would send "billions of dollars worth of military equipment" purchased from American companies, paid for by European countries and delivered to NATO allies to be sent on to Ukraine.
Trump's announcement coupled with the secondary tariff threat against Russia marks a shift in the president's support for Ukraine, and underscores his growing frustration with the Russian leader.
Trump's secondary tariffs would impose levies on the countries and entities that buy Russia's exports.
They could take an especially heavy toll on countries that rely on Russian fossil fuels as part of their energy plan, like China, India, Brazil and Turkiye.
This is not the first time that Trump has threatened to impose "secondary tariffs" on Russia over its ongoing war with Ukraine.
It's also not the first time that Trump has issued such a warning against an adversary.
Trump in March said that countries that buy oil and gas from Venezuela will face a 25% levy, and in May he threatened to impose similar levies on countries that import Iranian oil.
The "secondary tariffs" on Venezuela have squeezed China particularly hard as the largest importer of Venezuela oil.
But Trump's Monday comments escalate his threat against Russia with a deadline in September.
In March, Trump said that, "If Russia and I are unable to make a deal on stopping the bloodshed in Ukraine... and if I think it was Russia's fault, I am going to put secondary tariffs on oil, on all oil coming out of Russia.
It was unclear Monday what products would be impacted by Trump's latest secondary tariff threat.
Source: CNBC
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