US President Donald Trump has slapped a 25% tariff on all countries doing business with Iran, Politico reports.
This will affect US trade with China, India, the United Arab Emirates, the European Union and others. Trump wrote on his social media account Truth Social that the tariff would take effect immediately and was final and irrevocable.
However, there is no indication that Trump has signed an executive order to put the tariffs into effect. A White House spokeswoman did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the president’s remarks.
Trump has also not ruled out the possibility that the US could use long-range missiles, while Pentagon officials have outlined the possibility of conducting cyber operations and psychological influence campaigns.
The US president’s promise to impose new tariffs follows reports from human rights groups that hundreds of people have been brutally killed in Iran during protests. Trump has previously warned that the US could intervene if Tehran uses violence to crack down on protesters. The BBC, citing an eyewitness account, writes that security forces simply opened fire on the protesters and people simply fell to the ground.
Michael Singh, executive director of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy Studies, who also worked on Middle East issues during the presidency of George W. Bush, noted that
Trump’s response to a very significant situation in Iran seems rather soft, and this could upset many in the US Iranian community.
He explained that the problem is that there are already quite a few sanctions against Iran in place, but they are not being implemented, and Iran is still trading oil, and then the question arises, what will change in this case, and how the changes will be implemented and respected.
Given the harsh sanctions, the US is unlikely to trade directly with Iran. According to the US Department of Commerce, 6.2 million dollars worth of goods were imported from Iran, and just over 90 million dollars worth of goods were exported there. At the same time, the US trades with countries that trade with Iran, including China, India, EU countries and the UAE.
Trump has long promised to impose additional tariffs on countries that buy Russian oil, but so far only India has been targeted, sparing China. He also promised in March last year to impose a 25% import tariff on countries that buy oil or gas from Venezuela, but that has not happened either.
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