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The US president has threatened Russia with 100 per cent secondary tariffs if the war in Ukraine does not end soon, as he announced an agreement with Nato allies to send more weapons to Kyiv.
During a meeting in the Oval Office with Nato secretary-general Mark Rutte on Monday, the US president said he was “very unhappy” with Moscow over the lack of progress towards a deal to end the conflict.
“We are very unhappy — I am — with Russia,” Trump said. “I’m disappointed in President Putin, because I thought we would have had a deal two months ago.”
“We’re going to be doing very severe tariffs if we don’t have a deal in 50 days, tariffs at about 100 per cent, you’d call them secondary tariffs,” he added. The tariffs would be “biting” and “very, very powerful”, he said.
Trump has previously raised the prospect of applying so-called secondary tariffs, which would apply a charge on countries that trade with Moscow, as he has grown increasingly frustrated with Putin’s intransigence in peace talks.
During Monday’s White House meeting, Trump also confirmed plans to send weapons to Ukraine, including Patriot missile systems.
The US president said that “billions of dollars’ worth of military equipment” would be purchased by Nato allies from the US, and that it would “be quickly distributed to the battlefield” in Ukraine.
Rutte said Germany, Finland, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, the Netherlands and Canada all want to be part of the weapons deal.
Trump said that Nato would co-ordinate getting the weaponry to Ukraine. Nato countries “will move equipment fast into Ukraine” and then the US would backfill allies’ weapons, Rutte said.
This is a developing story
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