In a speech on March 11, U.S. President Joe Biden announced that America has united with its allies in the Group of Seven (G7) and the European Union (EU) in suspending permanent normal trade relations (PNTR) with Russia.
In the White House press briefing, Biden said that the decision would increase economic pressure on Russian President Vladimir Putin and further isolate Moscow from the international scene.
The U.S. will join allies in the G7 – Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, United Kingdom, as well as the European Union – in announcing several new steps “to squeeze Putin and hold him even more accountable for his aggression against Ukraine.”
Normal trade relations for Russia would be revoked if the U.S. Congress approves the move. Russia’s status as a “most favored nation,” a categorization within the World Trade Organization (WTO) that exempts a country from extreme tariffs, would be revoked. The move would open the door to new tariffs on $105 billion of Moscow’s exports to the trading block, Bloomberg News reports.
European Commission Spokeswoman Miriam Garcia Ferrer told Bloomberg News that the EU has adopted sweeping sanctions related to Russia, “which undoubtedly will have a major impact on trade.”
U.S. Senator Maria Cantwell said in a press release that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy directly asked Congress last weekend to revoke Russia’s most favored nation status.
According to The Hill, Russian President Vladimir Putin declared on March 10 that the country would be stronger due to the sanctions imposed by Western governments for its war in Ukraine.
“These sanctions would have been imposed in any case,” Putin said. “There are some questions, problems, and difficulties, but in the past, we have overcome them, and we will overcome them now.”
In Biden’s March 11 speech, he called Putin “the aggressor,” and said he cannot be allowed to pursue war and threaten the foundations of international peace and stability.
“Revoking PNTR for Russia is going to make it harder for Russia to do business with the United States,” Biden said, “and doing it in unison with other nations that make up half of the global economy will be another crushing blow to the Russian economy.”