United States to Further Increase Tariffs, Impose More Sanctions on Russia

Economic sanctions are commercial and financial penalties applied by one or more countries against a targeted self-governing state, group, or individual. Economic sanctions are not necessarily imposed because of economic circumstances—they may also be imposed for a variety of political, military, and social issues.

The United States is increasing import tariffs on hundreds of goods from Russia and imposing a number of additional sanctions against that country in response to its ongoing war against Ukraine.

For more information on the wide range of trade restrictions the United States has imposed on Russia and how to ensure your company is in compliance, please contact attorney Kristine Pirnia at (202) 730-4964 or via email.

Under an April 2022 law that revoked permanent normal trade relations status for (and thus increased tariffs on) imports from Russia, President Biden has issued an executive order that, effective July 27, will further increase to 35 percent United States import tariffs on more than 570 groups of goods from Russia.

The annex to the proclamation listing the affected goods by HTSUS number is available here, and the Office of the United States Trade Representative said it includes steel and aluminium; minerals, ores, and metals; chemicals; arms and ammunition; wood and paper products; aircraft and parts; and automotive parts.

The White House said the United States and other G-7 member countries will “seek authority to use revenues collected by new tariffs on Russian goods to help Ukraine and to ensure that Russia pays for the costs of its war.”

The United States is also prohibiting new imports of gold from Russia, which is the world’s second-largest producer and has gold as its second-biggest export behind energy.

Information from the United Kingdom, which along with other G-7 members is also imposing this ban, states that the ban will apply to “newly mined or refined gold” but not “Russian-origin gold previously exported from Russia.”

The White House pointed out that most of Russia’s gold exports go to the United Kingdom and that the United States imported less than $1 million in Russian gold in 2021.

Other measures the United States intends to take in the near future include the following:

• adding companies “engaging in backfill activities in support of Russia” to the Entity List, which will prohibit those companies from purchasing United States-made goods and technologies;
• imposing blocking sanctions against (1) major Russian state-owned defence enterprises, defence research organisations, and other defence-related entities and (2) persons tied to aiding Russia’s efforts to evade United States sanctions;
• issuing an alert to financial institutions to aid in detecting potential violations of export controls.

For more information, please contact Charles L. Crowley at (914) 433-6178 or ccrowley@strtrade.com or Robert D. DeCamp at rdecamp@strtrade.com or (212) 549-0141.