White House Explains Why New US Duties Do Not Affect Belarus, Russian Federation, North Korea

• 3.04.2025, 7:39

A representative of the Trump administration shared the details.

Global reciprocal tariffs announced by US President Donald Trump have bypassed a number of under-sanctioned countries. Russia and North Korea are among them.

This is reported by The New York Times.

A White House official told the US newspaper on condition of anonymity that the reciprocal duties presented by Trump do not apply to Belarus, Cuba, Russia and North Korea because such countries are already under sanctions restrictions and ‘face’ significant tariffs.

According to the Trump administration, such nations ‘already face extremely high tariffs, and our previously imposed sanctions prevent any significant trade with these countries.’

New Global Duties by the United States

We remind you that the US President announced the introduction of a universal or ‘minimum base tariff’ of 10% on imports ‘from all countries of the world’, and the introduction of additional individual duties for about 60 countries.

The list of tariffs released by the White House includes 183 countries and the EU.

We would like to add that basic duties at the level of 10 per cent are introduced for Ukraine. In addition, official Washington said that for the time being the duties will not be applied to Canada and Mexico.

Reciprocal tariffs from Trump are due to come into force on 9 April. And the minimum basic tariff all countries will start paying from 5 April.

Trump also signed an executive order that imposes 25 per cent duties on cars and parts imported into the US. Tariffs on cars will come into effect already from 3 April, on spare parts - a little later.

The White House said that the States do not plan to impose reciprocal tariffs on some imported products. In particular, goods that are critical for the production and national security of the United States are excluded.