‘China issue a little bit more complicated’: Vance says Trump yet to decide on tariffs over Beijing’s Russian oil imports

His statement comes after Washington slapped a punitive 25 per cent tariff on India for buying oil from Russia.

“Well, the president said he’s thinking about it, but he hasn’t made any firm decisions,” Vance told Fox News.

“Obviously, the China issue is a little bit more complicated because our relationship with China, just. It affects a lot of other things that have nothing to do with the Russian situation. So the president’s reviewing his options and, of course, going to make that decision when he decides,” he said.

The United States slapped India with 25 per cent tariffs alongside 25 per cent levies for its purchases of Russian oil, bringing the total duties on New Delhi to 50 per cent.

In July, Trump had threatened to impose 100 per cent tariffs on Russia and “secondary tariffs” on the countries that buy oil from them if Moscow failed to reach a peace agreement with Ukraine within 50 days.

“We’re very, very unhappy with them. And we’re going to be doing very severe tariffs if we don’t have a deal in 50 days. Tariffs at about 100 per cent, you’d call them secondary tariffs,” Trump had said.

‘Right to choose trading partners’: Russia

Earlier, Russia hit out at Trump over his tariff threats to India, calling his pressure tactics “not legal”.

Responding to the US president’s announcement of a 25 per cent tariff on Indian imports, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said, “We hear many statements that are in fact threats, attempts to force countries to cut trade relations with Russia. We do not consider such statements to be legal.”

In a sharp rebuke of Trump’s stance, Peskov added, “We believe that sovereign countries should have and do have the right to choose their own trading partners, partners for trade and economic cooperation, and to choose for themselves the forms of trade and economic cooperation that are in the interests of a particular country.”

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