Moscow and Washington are “in the middle” of Ukraine peace talks, White House Economic Council director Kevin Hassett has told ABC
US President Donald Trump’s administration has not imposed any tariffs on Russia in order not to jeopardize ongoing talks on settling the Ukraine conflict, White House Economic Council director Kevin Hassett has told ABC.
On Tuesday, the US president introduced new dues ranging from 10% to 50% on imported goods from dozens of nations, including China, EU member states, and Japan. The move was part of a broader strategy to promote American industry and correct what Trump described as “grossly unfair trade imbalances.” Russia, along with Belarus, Cuba, and North Korea, were absent from the list.
When asked to explain why Moscow was left out, Hassett said, “There’s obviously an ongoing negotiation with Russia and Ukraine,” adding that the White House did not want to “conflate the two issues.”
Pressed by ABC on whether it was the right thing to do, the economic council director maintained it would not be wise to “put a whole bunch of new things on the table in the middle of a negotiation that affects so many American and Ukrainian and Russian lives.”
Reporter George Stephanopoulos then claimed that negotiators “do that all the time,” but Hasset responded by saying that it was “not appropriate to throw a new thing into these negotiations right in the middle of it. It’s just not.”
Over the past few weeks, the Trump administration has been engaged in talks with Russia to end the Ukraine conflict. Both sides have described the process as productive, and US officials have hinted at a possible ceasefire in the foreseeable future. Moscow has repeatedly signaled it is open to a peaceful resolution as long as its interests and concerns are taken into account.
Earlier this week, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent provided another explanation for Washington’s decision not to include Russia in the tariff list, telling Fox News that America “does not trade meaningfully” with Moscow, and that sanctions are already “doing the work that tariffs would.”
American imports from Russia fell to approximately $3 billion in 2024, down 34.2% from the previous year, according to US government data.
The two nations are currently seeing a modest thaw in diplomatic contacts under the new Trump administration. Kirill Dmitriev, Russian President Vladimir Putin’s special economic envoy and head of the country’s sovereign wealth fund, visited Washington this week for closed-door meetings with administration officials and business leaders in the highest-level Russian visit to the US since the start of the Ukraine conflict.
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