Donald Trump signed an executive order on Friday repealing key sanctions and tariffs enacted under the law known as the Graham Law. The measures, which include tariffs on Russian goods and penalties for countries purchasing Russian oil and gas, were due to take effect next week.
The Graham Law was signed last month at the urging of representatives who want to corner Moscow over its war in Ukraine. The order issued on Friday did not clarify how long the sanctions waiver would last. Marco Rubio said that Trump estimates the sanctions waiver will last 60 days.
Rubio explained that the president wants to take a 60-day period to analyse what the imposition of sanctions and tariffs would mean for the global economy, and even the American economy. Trump told reporters at his Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach, Florida: "A good part of you don't know what my decision is, but we will clarify it and you will understand." Rubio told reporters this before boarding a plane for Uzbekistan.
Ukrainian President Zelensky criticised the order on Friday and warned that it would embolden Russian President Vladimir Putin to prolong the war. Rubio defended a separate US agreement with Russia on increasing diesel reserves on the global market on Saturday, aimed at easing fuel prices that have spiked due to the war with Iran and disruptions to energy supplies.
"Diesel will be sold one way or another," Rubio said, adding: "The only difference is how much the United States will get." Under the agreement, Trump said Russia would first supply the US with more than 300,000 metric tonnes of diesel, followed by shipments in November and continuing thereafter.
US Energy Secretary Chris Wright said in a Sunday interview on ABC's "This Week" that the diesel agreement is "a carrot for Russia to end the war, not its economic life raft." Rubio said that the diesel deal, as well as the sanctions pause, reflect the challenge of managing conflicts in the Middle East and Ukraine that have battered global energy supplies. "These conflicts around the world are starting to collide with one another," Rubio said.
