House votes 262-159 to send Trump 100% tariff power on all goods from Russian energy buyers

Congress finished a Russia sanctions package Wednesday and put a trade instrument on President Donald Trump’s desk that is larger than a Russia tariff. Within 30 days of a signature, the statute says he shall raise U.S. duties on all goods from Russia, including oil, gas, LNG, petroleum products, petrochemicals and coal, to a rate of up to 500% ad valorem, a tax set as a share of the shipment’s value. The same clock covers a second, broader duty: up to 100% on all goods from countries that keep buying Russian crude or gas.

The House vote was 262-159, with 203 Republicans, 58 Democrats and one independent in favor and seven Republicans and 152 Democrats opposed. The Senate had already passed the same amended text 86-11 on Friday, August 7. Reports of House passage landed after the U.S. close. Until there is a signature, a rate, and a named country, this is authority, not a tariff that is in force.

A ceiling, a clock, and a waiver

The verbs matter. “Shall” makes the duty action mandatory once the bill is law. “Up to” leaves the rate to the president. He does not have to set 500% on Russian goods or 100% on anyone else; he does have to move the rate, to some level at or below those caps.

The 100% levy is not an energy tax. It would apply to every good imported from a covered country. In 2025 the United States imported $308.7 billion of goods from China and $103.8 billion from India, the trade a 100% duty would tax if either country is named. A covered country, in the Senate-engrossed text, is one that knowingly makes new purchases of Russian-origin crude or natural gas on or after 30 days after enactment and ranked among the five largest importers of that crude or gas over the prior 12 months, or one of the five countries found to be facilitating Russian-oil sanctions evasion. The U.S. Trade Representative can later modify a covered-country rate to any level greater than zero and up to 100%, with a fresh ranking of the five largest importers every 180 days. The president or USTR must send Congress a written justification 10 days before imposing or changing a duty.

Section 115 then hands the other side of the lever back. “The President may… waive the application of any sanctions provision with respect to a foreign person, any restriction with respect to a person, or any duty under this title.” Before a waiver he must certify in writing that it is in the national interest and send a report explaining that certification. The text does not require Congress to approve the waiver first. The Russia-and-tariff division sunsets five years after enactment; an extension of the Iran Sanctions Act of 1996 does not.

That structure is why the bill split the House after sailing through the Senate. Rep. Don Beyer, a Virginia Democrat, said it has “a loophole that would allow him to define basically any country as a facilitator of evading Russian sanctions” and that Trump could then impose tariffs “of up to 100%, with no guardrails or oversight, and no expiration.” The five-year sunset is in the statute; Beyer’s complaint is about how much of the machine still runs on presidential discretion. The White House, in a July 28 statement of administration policy, said the bill would strengthen the authorities Trump can use to push Russia toward a settlement and that, if presented in that form, his advisers would recommend he sign it.

What the House sent him is a five-year option. He can tax every import from the countries that still take Russian crude, at a rate of his choosing, on a 30-day clock, with a waiver in his pocket.

Who still buys the barrels

The 100% duty is a test of who keeps lifting Russian crude after the grace period. In August, the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air found China took 50% of Russia’s crude exports and India 37%, with Turkey and the European Union at 5% each. China was also the largest buyer of Russian fossil fuels among the top five importers, accounting for 51% of those revenues, or €8.4 billion. India was second, taking €4.8 billion of Russian hydrocarbons, €4.1 billion of it crude, after a 24% month-on-month drop from two record months. Turkey led purchases of Russian oil products, at 26% of those exports, ahead of China at 12%. Russia’s fossil-fuel export revenue that month was €604 million a day, down 8% from July.

Those buyers are the ones whose goods, not just their oil companies, would sit under the 100% cap if they keep lifting.

The same week as a Trump-Xi meeting

The option lands in a crowded diplomatic week. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told the House he would press China this weekend to cut oil ties with Iran, and he said he expected to meet Vice Premier He Lifeng before a Trump-Xi meeting later this month. Reuters reported the presidential meeting was expected in the United States on Thursday, September 24, and that Beijing had not officially confirmed it.

The talks put the new tariff discretion on the table at the same moment Washington is asking Beijing for something else on energy. A 100% duty on Chinese goods would be a second, larger trade argument than a Russia-only levy. Trump can sign, wait, waive, set a token rate, or use the 10-day notice as a negotiating clock.

What a 100% duty would hit

The vote landed after the U.S. close. China and India funds barely moved: the iShares Hong Kong-listed large-cap fund BFXI fell 1.4%, and the iShares MSCI India fund AINDA fell 0.3%.

BFXI, which etf.net grades B against the other funds that make the same China promise, is 37% financials and 25% consumer cyclical, with China Construction Bank, Alibaba and Tencent the top three names and energy only 5.1%. A 100% U.S. duty on Chinese goods would hit it through trade. India sits closer to the barrel. AINDA, graded A against other India funds, has 8.6% in energy, and Reliance Industries is 5.5% of the fund.

The first test is a signature, then the 10-day notice, in a week when Trump may also sit down with Xi.