Joe Biden will announce on Friday that he wants to exclude Russia from the normal regime of global trade relations by depriving it of its so-called "
most favored nation
" status, which would open the way to tariff hikes, a source said. close to the file.
The final decision on this new sanction in response to the invasion of Ukraine, which would be taken in coordination with the G7 and the European Union, rests with regard to the United States in Congress, indicated the same source, confirming the information of several American media.
It should be a formality since the same Congress, in a rare bipartisan spirit, has already declared itself in favor of such a measure.
The US president's schedule for Friday calls for him to speak at 10:15 a.m. local time (2015 GMT) to announce new measures in response to Russia's "
unprovoked and unjustified war
" against Ukraine.
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Strengthening Russia's Economic Isolation
The most-favoured-nation clause - known in the United States as the "
normal permanent trade relationship
" - is a cornerstone of free trade.
It is a principle of reciprocity and non-discrimination which currently governs most commercial relations between States.
Thus the World Trade Organization (WTO) requires that any trade advantage - such as a reduction in customs tariffs - granted by a member is automatically applied to all the others.
Concretely, depriving Russia of this status would allow its trading partners to impose higher customs tariffs on it, so as to penalize Russian exports.
This new sanction will come on top of several rounds of measures intended to gradually cut Russia's economic and financial ties with the rest of the world.