Trump administration officials have been beating back criticism of the tariffs in morning-after television interviews, dismissing concerns about stock market volatility as overblown.
“Sure there’s going to be some short-term movement but this is a reordering of global trade,” Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said in an interview with CBS.
While there may be some initial changes in the stock market, in the long term, he said, “you’re going to see America thrive. Interest rates are going to come down, as we said, and America is going to thrive.”
Russia, along with some of the world’s other most heavily sanctioned countries – Belarus, Cuba and North Korea – avoided being singled out for special punitive treatment by Trump.
Asked why Russia was not on the list, U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told Fox News that the United States did not trade with Russia and Belarus and that they were under sanctions.
Goods trade between Russia and the United States was $3.5 billion last year, according to U.S. figures.
In 2021, the year before the Russian invasion of Ukraine, it was $36 billion.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told Axios that Russia was left off because there was no meaningful trade with it – plus Cuba, Belarus and North Korea were not included because existing tariffs and sanctions on them were already so high.
Russia, which is under more than 28,595 different Western sanctions, has classified trade data since the start of the war.
U.S. goods imports from Russia totaled $3 billion in 2024, down 34.2% from 2023, according to the office of the U.S. Trade Representative.
For Russia, though, the biggest risk is a potential slowdown in global demand from the wider tariff war – which could hit the price of oil.
