The escape of Russia at Trump prices raises questions

When President Trump unveiled new major prices on Wednesday, a great economy that he did not target Russia.

Treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, told Fox News on Wednesday that Moscow had been spared because the sanctions imposed in the country after his large-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 mean that the American-Russian trade had actually stopped. North Korea, Cuba and Belarus, which are also subject to difficult sanctions, have also been excluded from new samples.

Trade Data depicts a more complicated image. The value of American trade with Russia has fallen at its lowest level for decades after the invasion. But last year, Russia has always exported about $ 3 billion in goods in the United States, according to American commercial figures, mainly fertilizers and platinum.

This figure is much higher than the value of American imports of certain countries smaller than Mr. Trump targeted, such as Laos and Fiji, which aroused the question of whether the decision of the White House to spare Russia was a strategic choice.

Trump recently threatened to impose prices on Russian oil buyers, a trade that is the rescue of the country’s war machine, if President Vladimir V. Putin did not cooperate with American efforts to negotiate a cease-fire in Ukraine. These prices would considerably complicate the country’s foreign trade.

Trump may retain new economic restrictions on Russia as a lever effect in peace talks, said Alexandra Prokopenko, member of Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center in Berlin and former head of the Russian central bank.

“I think it’s a political decision,” said Ms. Prokopenko. “Trump does not want to degenerate while his talks with Putin are underway.”

The idea that Mr. Trump uses prices as a geopolitical negotiation tool seems to be supported by his treatment of Iran, another target of his transfer ambitions. He placed Iran in the lowest level of new prices, 10%, which is below the rate imposed on Israel, a closed American ally.

The composition of Russia’s exports could also have played a role. Russia is the third largest foreign fertilizer supplier in the United States, and the total amount of its fertilizer exports has increased in the past year.

Trump weighed how to protect American farmers, a key district, from the effects of his commercial wars. Keeping the cost of low fertilizers could be part of this strategy.