U.S. President Donald Trump said on Wednesday that imports from countries that supply Iran with military weapons would immediately face 50% tariffs without any exemptions, threatening new tariffs hours after agreeing a two-week ceasefire with Iran. Tehran.
After more than five weeks of airstrikes targeting Iranian missile launchers, military installations and weapons industries, Trump has returned to his favorite foreign policy pressure tool — tariffs — in what is effectively a warning China and Russia Posted on social media against replenishing Tehran’s military stockpiles.
But the U.S. Supreme Court in February stripped the U.S. president of the fastest and most sweeping tariff powers known as the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, ruling that the broadest global tariffs he had imposed under a 1977 law were illegal. Trump wrote on the “Truth Society” website: “Countries that provide military weapons to Iran will immediately impose a 50% tariff on all goods sold to the United States, effective immediately, without any exceptions or exemptions! President DJT.” But did not name any country.
China and Russia have helped Iran build military capabilities in response to U.S. and Israeli pressure, providing missiles, air defense systems and dual-use technology designed to enhance deterrence. That support appears to have been limited during the U.S. and Israeli attacks on Iran. Both Beijing and Moscow have recently denied providing any weapons, although the accusations against Russia remain. Reuters reported in February that Tehran was considering buying supersonic anti-ship cruise missiles from China, ahead of the first U.S. and Israeli attacks on Iran. Reuters also reported in March that China’s largest semiconductor manufacturer Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp. had provided chip manufacturing tools to the Iranian military, according to two senior Trump administration officials. Josh Lipsky, vice president and chairman of international economics at the Atlantic Council, said: “The way I understand it, this is a threat related to China. China will understand it the same way.”
Although drones and missile parts often flow from Chinese entities to Iran, evading U.S. sanctions, Lipsky said Trump was unlikely to impose new tariffs anytime soon because it would disrupt his planned trip to Beijing to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping.
On Tuesday, U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said Trump would seek to maintain stability in the current Sino-U.S. relationship to ensure that the United States has access to rare earth minerals and magnets produced in China while maintaining previous tariff levels. Greer said Trump wanted to avoid a “large-scale confrontation” with Xi Jinping.
alternative tariff instruments
Lipsky said that among the trade tools still available to Trump, the aggressive “Section 301” unfair trade practice actions against Chinese goods taken during his first term would be the most likely means to quickly add new tariffs.
A more limited tool, Section 232 of the Cold War-era Trade Expansion Act of 1962, was intended to protect strategic domestic industries on national security grounds, but it would limit tariffs to specific sectors and lack the broad economy-wide impact of previous IEEPA-based tariffs.
Over the past eight years, Trump’s tariffs on Chinese goods have sharply reduced U.S. imports from China, from a peak of $538.5 billion in 2018 to $308.4 billion in 2025, with further declines in January and February 2026. Russia has been another source of Iranian weapons technology, but U.S. imports of Russian goods have also declined significantly since the 2022 invasion of Ukraine and the resulting wave of financial sanctions against Moscow. move. Russia is one of the only countries not affected by Trump’s now-removed “reciprocal” tariffs, and U.S. imports from Russia will grow 26.1% to $3.8 billion in 2025. These imports are mainly palladium, used in automobile catalytic converters, fertilizers and their components, and enriched uranium for use in nuclear reactors. The U.S. Commerce Department has begun imposing punitive tariffs on Russian palladium following an anti-dumping investigation. (Reporting by Susan Heavey and David Lawder in Washington; Editing by Sharon Singleton, Matthew Lewis and Paul Simao)
