U.S. President Joe Biden, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo attend a meeting with Colombian President Ivan Duque in the Cabinet Room of the White House, in Washington, U.S., on Feb. March 10, 2022.
Jonathan Ernst | Reuters
chairperson Joe Biden on Friday will call on the United States to revoke Russia’s “most-favored nation” status, downgraded it to a trading partner that could open the door to damaging new tariffs on Moscow because of the invasion. Ukraine strategy.
Biden is expected to make that announcement in remarks from the White House at 10:15 a.m., a senior administration official told CNBC and NBC News.
The European Union and the Group of Seven will take the same step, many bases report. Canada scrapped Russia’s most-favored nation status last week.
Congress must act to repeal Russia’s trade classification as a member of the World Trade Organization. Bipartisan lawmakers have widely supported non-military efforts to sanction Russia, and some have called for Moscow’s WTO status to be scrapped.
“I think we should use the ability of Article 21 under the WTO to rescind that,” Senator Rob Portman, R-Ohio, said Thursday during a Foreign Affairs Committee hearing.
The House of Representatives this week also overwhelmingly supported legislation that would require the US Trade Representative to consider suspending Russia’s participation in the WTO.
Biden’s statement will mark the latest push by the United States and dozens of other countries to make unprecedented efforts to isolate and sabotage Russia’s economy in response to the President’s invasion of Ukraine. Vladimir Putin.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of Ukraine, who was interviewed from a bunker in the capital Kyiv even as Russian forces approached the city, has directly ask the National Assembly over the weekend to revoke Russia’s most-favored nation status.
Biden this week signed an executive order plans to ban imports of Russian oil. The US, EU and NATO countries have imposed sanctions on Russian businesses, the country’s elite financiers and even Putin himself, while a growing list of major corporations has withdrawn from operations. move their business out of the country.
If the trade status is revoked, the Biden administration and Congress will be able to impose tariffs on any goods Russia exports to the US.
Russia was the 26th largest trading partner of the United States in 2019, according to the Office of the United States Trade Representative. Russia’s exports to the US in 2021 will reach $29 billion, the majority of which consists of oil and gas products.
