Trump threatens to impose a 25% tariff on countries that trade with Iran
- Application of the 25% tariff and legal doubts
- Protests in Iran: deaths and arrests
- US contacts and sanctions on Iran
- China's response to the possible imposition of tariffs
- Iran's trade, oil to China and reactions from South Korea and Japan
‘With immediate effect, any country that does business with the Islamic Republic of Iran will pay a 25% tariff on all business it does with the United States,’ were the words of the US president posted on his social media platform Truth Social.
Although initially the White House declined to comment on the matter, the message comes just as the White House is considering what to do about the major internal crisis in Iran, despite the fact that no official reports or documentation have been released on the measures that the Trump administration will take.
Nor has it been confirmed which law the president would use to impose the tariffs, or whether they would be applied to all countries that trade with Iran without distinction. It should be remembered that, in previous cases, tariffs imposed by Trump, the president's flagship measure in his second term, on countries around the globe were overturned by the Federal Court.
Application of the 25% tariff and legal doubts
‘This order is final and conclusive,’ he said, but no further details were given on how it would be implemented. The only aspect known so far is that it will be the importers themselves in the United States who will have to pay the tariffs on products arriving from countries that trade with Iran.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt has made it clear that, for the president, ‘diplomacy is always the first option.’
Protests in Iran: deaths and arrests
Since 28 December, the Islamic Republic has been at a turning point due to the scale of the most significant anti-government protests in the country's history, with around 600 deaths and more than 10,600 arrests during the demonstrations.
According to the US human rights organisation HRANA, as of 28 December, when the protests began, the deaths of 599 people have been confirmed. Of these, 510 were protesters and 89 were security forces.
US contacts and sanctions on Iran
Trump has announced that the United States could meet with Iranian officials and that he has been in contact with the opposition, while pressure on Tehran continues to mount.
Iran, which is part of OPEC, has suffered the heaviest sanctions imposed by Washington for many years, along with Venezuela. Since then, much of its oil has been purchased by Xi Jinping's government through large Chinese state-owned companies. Of the total, Chinese companies have acquired about 90% of Iranian oil; the rest is divided between Turkey, Iraq, the United Arab Emirates and India.
China's response to the possible imposition of tariffs
Faced with this situation, China, Iran's main ally along with Russia and Venezuela, has been quick to react. From the Chinese embassy in Washington, Chinese spokesman Liu Pengyu said that "China's position against the indiscriminate imposition of tariffs is clear and consistent. Tariff and trade wars have no winners, and pressure cannot solve problems.‘
The Chinese embassy also described the move as ’unilateral coercion and pressure‘ and warned that Beijing would take ’all necessary measures" to protect its interests in a legitimate manner.
Beijing insists that its foreign policy is based on non-interference in third countries, although in this case, it is not in Beijing's interests for the Iranian regime to fall, nor for a possible large-scale war scenario to unfold.
Iran's trade, oil to China and reactions from South Korea and Japan
Around 30% of all Iran's foreign trade is with China. And almost 90% of the oil that Iran sells ends up, sooner or later, in Chinese refineries. Iranian crude oil has been arriving at Chinese ports for years, through illegal smuggling, by means of transfers between ships, changing flags and using third countries as intermediaries. These actions have been thoroughly denounced by Japan and South Korea, which have had trade agreements with the United States since last year.
In this regard, South Korea has stated, through an official communiqué from the Ministry of Trade, that the South Korean government will take ‘any necessary measures’ once Washington decides what it will do.
For his part, Masanao Ozaki, the chief deputy secretary of the Japanese Cabinet, commented that Tokyo will carefully analyse what may happen as a result of these measures and will respond ‘appropriately’.