Trump Waives Russia Oil Sanctions Before Rubio India Visit — SkimNews
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- Trump issued an executive order on Friday waiving sanctions, restrictions, and duties under the Sanctioning Russia and Iran Act, certifying to Congress that the waiver serves U.S. national interest under Section 115(a) of the law.
- The Graham Act, passed September 16 and signed by Trump on September 18, had authorized up to 100% tariffs within 30 days on goods from the five largest importers of Russian crude oil and gas, including China and India.
- The waiver arrives days after Trump struck a deal with Russia for diesel supply to U.S. and global markets, and days before Secretary of State Marco Rubio's trip to India.
- India's External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar raised Graham Act concerns with Rubio at the UN General Assembly, explaining that Indian refineries are configured for medium sour crude from Russia and West Asia, and cannot run on U.S. light crude or Venezuelan heavy crude without blending.
- With West Asian oil supplies disrupted by the Iran war, India depends on Russian crude to keep its economy running — the structural reason tariffs on Indian buyers would have hit India especially hard.
Why it matters: The waiver spares India and China from immediate 100% tariffs on their goods, a threat made viable just weeks ago by the Graham Act. For India, which lost West Asian supply due to the Iran war and runs refineries calibrated for Russian medium sour crude, the tariff threat was unworkable on technical grounds — making this not a concession but a prerequisite for the upcoming Rubio visit.
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