Washington, D.C. — US President Donald Trump has signed an executive order waiving the core tariff and sanctions provisions of a law that would have imposed duties of up to 100 percent on the largest purchasers of Russian crude oil and natural gas, including India and China, two days before the law's implementation deadline of October 18, 2026.
The legislation in question is the Lindsey O. Graham Sanctioning Russia and Iran Act of 2026, signed into law by Trump on September 18, 2026. The law, named after Republican Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, who died on July 11, 2026, after a "brief and sudden illness" that was subsequently attributed to an aortic dissection, required the President, within 30 days, to impose tariffs of up to 100 percent on goods from the top five importers of Russian crude oil and natural gas, provided those countries knowingly made new purchases, and a comparable tariff on the top five facilitators of Russian oil sanctions evasion.
The law also authorised broader sanctions targeting Russian leaders, officials and financial institutions, and provided for expanded sanctions on Iran.
On October 16, 2026, two days before the law's October 18 deadline, Trump signed an executive order that activated the law's tariff and sanctions provisions and then, in the same order, suspended almost all of them. Trump invoked the law's national-interest waiver authority to suspend the new duties on goods from major Russian energy buyers, along with most of the law's broader sanctions and restrictions on foreign persons.
By waiving the provisions, Washington avoided a potential tariff clash with India, China and Turkey, the three countries that together account for the large majority of Russia's international energy trade, by one widely cited estimate, India and China alone account for roughly 70 percent of Russia's international energy business.
Trump's Stated Justification
Trump stated that the waiver was issued in the national interest of the United States, as provided for under the Graham Act's own waiver authority. The move was reported to coincide with broader US-Russia engagement on energy matters, including a separate, temporary easing of US sanctions on Russian diesel exports announced earlier in October 2026, as part of a diesel-supply arrangement between Washington and Moscow.
The waiver decision also came amid concerns over elevated global energy prices and the potential impact of further Russia-linked trade restrictions on oil markets more broadly. The US administration indicated that Washington would continue monitoring Russian energy purchases by major importing countries, leaving open the possibility of renewed tariff or sanctions action under the law at a later date, should circumstances change.
The waiver drew a notably positive response from Moscow. Kirill Dmitriev, Russian President Vladimir Putin's economy envoy, described the suspension of key Graham Act provisions as "an important and truly historic moment" in a post on the social media platform X.
The move drew criticism from Democratic lawmakers, including Connecticut Senator Richard Blumenthal, who had co-drafted the Graham Act alongside the late Senator Graham and condemned the waiver as undermining the law's intended purpose of pressuring Russia economically over its invasion of Ukraine.
Background: The Escalating Tariff Dispute With India
The waiver marks the latest shift in a tariff dispute between Washington and New Delhi that had intensified over the preceding year. The United States had, since mid-2025, progressively raised tariffs on Indian goods, citing India's continued purchase of discounted Russian crude oil, eventually doubling tariffs on India to 50 percent through an executive order that added a 25 percent tariff on top of an earlier 25 percent levy, specifically linked to Russian oil purchases.
Senator Graham, prior to his death, had been among the most prominent advocates in Congress for using tariffs and sanctions to pressure India and other Russian energy buyers, at one point backing legislation proposing tariffs of up to 500 percent on such countries, and describing existing US tariffs on India as something that would "pay dividends" in curbing Russian oil revenue.
India's government had consistently defended its energy purchasing decisions, with the Ministry of External Affairs stating that India's energy sourcing is guided by market conditions and consumer needs rather than any particular geopolitical alignment, and had separately accused the US of applying inconsistent standards, noting that Washington itself continued to import various Russian-origin goods even as it penalised India for its oil purchases.
The Graham Act's national-interest waiver authority, invoked by Trump to suspend the law's core provisions, reflects a common statutory design in US sanctions and trade legislation, under which Congress grants the President discretionary authority to exempt specific applications of a law where the President determines doing so serves the national interest, even after the underlying provisions have been formally activated.
This structure allows the executive branch flexibility to calibrate economic pressure in response to evolving diplomatic or market conditions, while leaving the underlying statutory framework in place for potential future use. Because the waiver operates through this presidential discretion rather than a repeal of the law itself, the Graham Act's tariff and sanctions provisions remain legally available for the administration to reactivate against India, China or other covered countries without requiring further congressional action, should the administration determine that a change in circumstances warrants doing so.
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