Trump questions US ban on Russian oil imports amid controversy over diesel authorisation

Washington: President Donald Trump questioned the US law banning Russian petroleum imports and said he would examine it, but announced no policy change amid a dispute over his administration’s authorisation of Russian diesel transactions.

“That probably makes it a pretty bad law. I’ll take a look at it, sure,” Trump said after a reporter told him Congress had passed the legislation and President Joe Biden had signed it in 2022.

During an Oval Office appearance, the reporter asked about a tanker carrying Russian diesel across the Atlantic, supposedly bound for the United States, and the legal restriction on unloading its cargo.

Trump first asked whether the restriction fell under the Jones Act. The reporter clarified that the question concerned legislation enacted in 2022.

His response offered no timetable, proposed amendment or explanation of how the administration would reconcile its diesel authorisation with the statutory import prohibition. He did not announce that the ban had been lifted.

The distinction is significant because Treasury had already issued a separate authorisation nearly a month earlier.

On October 9, the Office of Foreign Assets Control issued General License 135. It authorises transactions otherwise prohibited by two sets of Russia-related sanctions regulations when they concern the sale, delivery, offloading or importation of Russian-origin diesel.

The text expressly includes importation into the United States. The authorisation runs through 12.01 a.m. Eastern Daylight Time on April 7, 2027.

It excludes debits to accounts held at US financial institutions by Russia’s central bank, National Wealth Fund or Finance Ministry. The licence concerns diesel and does not announce a general reopening of trade in all Russian petroleum products.

However, the Ending Importation of Russian Oil Act, signed on April 8, 2022, separately prohibits imports of Russian products classified under Chapter 27 of the US tariff schedule.

The law provides a procedure for terminating that prohibition. It requires a presidential certification concerning a Ukraine-accepted agreement for Russian withdrawal and cessation of hostilities, the absence of an immediate Russian military threat to NATO members, and recognition of Ukrainians’ right to choose their government.

It also requires prior consultation with congressional committees and provides a 90-day period after certification before termination takes effect, unless Congress enacts a resolution of disapproval.

The Treasury licence does not itself document completion of that statutory process.

New Jersey Governor Mikie Sherrill challenged the authorisation in a November 2 letter to port and terminal operators, three days before Trump’s latest remarks.

“The Trump Administration’s authorization of Russian fuel imports directly conflicts with federal law,” she wrote.

Sherrill argued that the statute did not give the executive branch blanket authority to waive the ban through licences. She warned businesses against accepting the fuel and said New Jersey would use available legal and regulatory powers to oppose such imports.