On Tuesday’s broadcast of the Fox News Channel’s “Ingraham Angle,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said that Russia could not wage war against Ukraine without China’s support but we haven’t put impactful secondary tariffs on China because “China had always been buying Russian oil.” And “We already have very high tariffs on China.”
Host Laura Ingraham asked, [relevant exchange begins around 6:10] “Now, you know better than anyone that the Russian economy really isn’t strong enough or big enough to carry on a sustained war, certainly not indefinitely. Couldn’t do it without the help of India buying, mostly oil, could not do it without the help of China, which is providing the bulk of the support to Russia. Now, India has gotten hit with secondary tariffs, which I think is very positive, put them back on their heels a bit. But China really is the big contributor to Russia’s current economic stability. Given that, why haven’t we put significant secondary tariffs on China for what they’re doing to help Russia?”
Bessent answered, “Well, I think a couple of things there, Laura: One, China had always been buying Russian oil. So, in 2022, 13% of their oil came from China, and now it’s 16. And they want a diversified oil supply. India, on the other hand, got about 1% of their oil from China in ’22, now it’s up to 37%. So, they’re doing what I call the Indian arbitrage, they’re buying cheap Russian oil, selling petrochemicals back out. Much of that is going to the richest families in India. We already have very high tariffs on China. And now India is going to see what it feels like.”
Ingraham followed up, “But China buys enormous amount[s] of ag. from Russia as well. And they are the biggest supporter of Russia. Without China, Russia couldn’t be in this war. Do you not agree?”
Bessent responded, “I agree. They’ve — 15 billion, minimum, in dual-use technologies and other support that I’m sure we don’t know about.”
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