The US and Europe are still doing billions of dollars' worth of business with Russia despite years of war

RNZ News

a day ago

By Lauren Kent, CNN
A ship carrying Russian liquefied natural gas (LNG) unloads gas in the port of Bilbao, Spain, on March 10, 2022.
Photo:
Vincent West/Reuters via CNN Newsource
US President Donald Trump is threatening an additional 25 percent tariff on India as well as higher tariffs on other countries that buy Russian oil, in an attempt to
pressure Moscow to end the war in Ukraine
. But the United States and Europe themselves are still doing billions of dollars in trade with Russia - although that's a fraction of the trade that took place before the war.
India has argued that it's being unfairly targeted
with the tariff increase, calling it "unjustified" given that other nations also do business with Moscow.
Trade between Russia and the US has fallen by about 90 percent since the Kremlin launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, but last year, the US still imported US$3 billion worth of goods from Russia, according to the latest data from the US Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) and Census Bureau.
Meanwhile, the European Union - which has been the Americans' partner in sanctions against Russia - imported US$41.9 billion of goods from Russia in 2024, data from the bloc's statistics agency shows.
"It's significant, but I think the more significant thing is how quickly the EU adjusted to reduce their dependency on Russia," said Kimberly Donovan, director of the Economic Statecraft Initiative at the Atlantic Council, a DC-based think tank. "They're making huge strides to further reduce how much they're getting from (Russia)."
EU imports from Russia dropped by 86 percent between the first quarters of 2022 and 2025, according to Eurostat data.
"I do think that there is a lot of opportunity for the US and even the EU to increase our trade with countries like Canada and get the products that we need from them," Donovan added. "That's where the trade wars and the negotiations over tariffs are really throwing things for a loop and are reducing our ability to be strategic in how we're approaching the Russia problem."
As
Trump prepares to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska
Friday, a top US official warned that India could see more tariffs coming their way if the talks don't go well.
"We've put secondary tariffs on the Indians for buying Russian oil. And I can see if things don't go well, then sanctions or secondary tariffs could go up," US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told Bloomberg.
These are the areas where economic ties with Russia remain the strongest, for the US and Europe respectively.
Fertilizer:
The US imported US$927 million worth of fertilizer in the first half of this year, US Census Bureau data shows. Last year, fertilizer imports from Russia totaled more than US$1 billion. The US particularly relies on Russia for imports of three types of chemical fertilizers: urea, urea ammonium nitrate (UAN) and potassium chloride muriate of potash, also called potash.
"Unless the US sanctions Russian fertilizer imports, as it does with Belarusian potash, this (level of trade) is likely to continue," said Allan Pickett, head of fertilizer analysis at S&P Global Commodity Insights. "Russia remains one of the most important global fertilizer suppliers and the influence of it has not diminished since 2022."
"Urea and potash could be readily sourced from elsewhere, although with potash it would further increase US dependence on Canada, which currently has an interesting trade dynamic," Pickett added.
The Trump administration recently hiked tariffs on Canada to a minimum of 35 percent - unless goods are compliant with the terms of the US-Mexico-Canada free trade agreement - escalating ongoing trade tensions with its northern neighbor.
Palladium:
Although palladium imports from Russia have reduced significantly since 2021, data shows that the US still imported US$878 million worth of the metal in 2024 and US$594 million worth in 2025, through June. The silvery metal is used in various electronic and industrial products and it's a key component in the catalytic converters of cars.
Uranium and plutonium:
The US has imported US$755 million worth of uranium and plutonium from Russia so far this year, according to Census data through June. It imported US$624 million worth of those commodities from Russia in 2024.
Oil:
Russia was the largest supplier of petroleum to the European Union prior to Moscow's full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The EU has since imposed a ban on maritime Russian oil imports, as well as refined oil products, like diesel. As a result, oil imports to Europe fell to US$1.72 billion (€1.48 billion) for the first quarter of 2025, down from US$16.4 billion (€14.06 billion) in the same quarter of 2021, according to the most recent data from Eurostat.
The top European importers of Russian fossil fuels in July 2025 were Hungary, France, Slovakia, Belgium and Spain, according to an analysis by the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air, an international research organization. Hungary and Slovakia accounted for the vast majority of crude oil imports, according to the analysis, while the others import mostly liquefied natural gas.
Natural gas:
The value of natural gas imports from Russia actually increased in the last four years as a result of price increases, growing to US$5.23 billion (€4.49 billion) in the first quarter of 2025, Eurostat data shows. However, the EU has slightly reduced Russia's market share of liquefied natural gas imports since 2021 - from 22 percent down to 19 percent in 2025 - while also greatly increasing the US market share.
Iron and steel:
Russia's share of iron and steel imports in the EU has dropped sharply. Iron and steel imports amounted to US$850 million (€730 million) in the first quarter of 2025 - about half of what they were in the same quarter in 2021, according to Eurostat.
Fertilizer:
Sanctions and import duties have not hit the fertilizer industry, and as a result, European imports of Russian fertilizer have changed very little since 2021. In the first quarter of 2025, EU countries imported US$640 million (€550 million) of Russian fertilizer, data shows.
Nickel:
The EU has diversified imports to rely more on nickel from the United States, Norway, the United Kingdom and Canada. Still, the bloc imported US$300 million (€260 million) worth of nickel from Russia in the first quarter of 2025. Nickel is primarily used to make stainless steel and other alloy steels, as well as batteries.
Beyond imports and exports of commodities, many Western companies remain entrenched in Russia.
Some notable American-based holdouts continue to operate in Russia, including top 100 companies, according to lists compiled by the Yale School of Management and the Kyiv School of Economics Institute.
Dozens of European businesses, including consumer-facing brands, retailers and software companies, have also remained in Russia.
The amount of tax revenue that Western companies generate for the Kremlin is relatively small, but analysts say the companies that remain have allowed aspects of normal life to continue for the Russian population.
Corporate exits serve to bring the war closer to the Russian people and confront their "complacency," as well as make it more difficult for Putin to paint a picture of a well-functioning economy, said Yale School of Management's Jeffrey Sonnenfeld, whose large team of researchers keeps track of which companies have left.
"It's an imploding market - it was never an economic superpower to start with - which is just a lot of smoke and mirrors, a lot of bravado on the part of Putin to try to create an aura of something bigger," Sonnenfeld told CNN.
In contrast to the reduction in trade with Moscow seen in the United States and EU, India imported $67 billion worth of goods from Russia in 2024, according to data aggregated by the United Nations. Roughly $53 billion worth of that was petroleum oils and crude oil.
Before the full-scale war, in 2021, India imported US$8.7 billion worth of goods from Russia.
India's imports of Russian oil and gas have skyrocketed since before the war began. Russian oil now makes up 36 percent of the Indian market, according to Vortexa, an energy data firm, meaning it imports more crude oil from Russia than from anywhere else.
China has also ramped up purchases of Russian crude oil following Moscow's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Its price fell after Western countries sharply scaled back their imports of Russian fuel. Russia now accounts for 13.5 percent of China's crude imports, according to Vortexa.
China imported roughly $130 billion in Russian goods in 2024, including $62.6 billion of petroleum oils and crude, the UN-aggregated data shows.
- CNN