US Calls on G7 Nations to Join: May Impose 200% Secondary Tariff on China

On Wednesday, August 13 local time, U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Besent urged European countries in an interview to be prepared to impose "secondary tariffs" on China and other countries that purchase Russian energy.

Bassent claimed that earlier this year at the G7 summit held in Canada, he questioned the G7 leaders on whether they were willing to impose a 200% "secondary tariff" on China, but was met with a lukewarm response. Bassent said, "At that moment, everyone looked down to see what shoes they were wearing."

Besent emphasized: "Now is the time to either take action or keep quiet. The President is creating his own leverage, and we need Europeans to join in and help create more leverage."

Besent refers to Trump's imposition of so-called "Secondary Tariffs" on countries purchasing Russian energy.

"Secondary tariffs" are tariffs directly imposed on countries that do business with Russia, especially those purchasing Russian oil and natural gas.

Previously, Trump stated that more secondary sanctions would be imposed on Russia. Countries purchasing Russian oil will face U.S. "secondary tariffs" as sanctions, with rates reaching around 100%.

"This could happen... I can't tell you right now," Trump said. "We have already done this to India. We might do this to several other countries that purchase Russian oil. One of them could be China."

Trump has imposed a secondary tariff of 25% on Indian goods, citing India's disregard for U.S. sanctions on Russia and its continued purchase of Russian oil. However, Trump has left room for negotiation, as the measure will only take effect at the end of August.

Bessent said: "Europeans need to join us in imposing sanctions; they need to do this." Bessent added, "Now is the time to either take action or keep quiet. We have imposed secondary tariffs on India for purchasing Russian oil. If the situation deteriorates, sanctions or secondary tariffs may be increased."

In response to a question about whether the U.S. would impose additional tariffs on China for purchasing Russian oil, Beset said: "Again, I don't want to get ahead of President (Trump), but the President is best at creating leverage for himself. He will make it clear to President Putin that all options are on the table, so sanctions can be strengthened, loosened, have specific deadlines, or they can continue indefinitely."

Bessent emphasized that it depends on the outcome of the meeting scheduled for Friday between President Trump and Russian President Putin. However, regardless, European countries need to support the idea of taking tougher measures, and Europeans need to be willing to implement these secondary sanctions.