Trump Waives All Tariffs and Russia Sanctions in the New Sanctions Law
President Trump signed an executive order waiving both tariff sections and all 10 Russia sanctions sections of the Lindsey O. Graham Sanctioning Russia and Iran Act of 2026, certifying to Congress that the waiver serves U.S. national interests. Sanctions already in force under earlier executive orders on Russia and the law's extension of the Iran Sanctions Act remain.
President Trump signed an executive order waiving all of the tariffs and Russia sanctions in the Lindsey O. Graham Sanctioning Russia and Iran Act, a law he signed last month.
The law's Russia title has two tariff sections and 10 sanctions sections. The order waives all of them. The tariffs, which are taxes on imports, were 500% on goods from Russia and 100% on goods from the biggest buyers of Russian oil and gas and from the countries that do most to help Russia get around oil sanctions. The sanctions covered people and companies tied to the Russian government, Russian state banks and companies, and bans on Americans investing in Russia, buying its debt or selling it energy.
Left in place are the law's definitions and procedures, its extension of a separate Iran sanctions law to 2031, every sanction already imposed under earlier executive orders on Russia, and a requirement that the U.S. trade representative monitor countries that buy Russian oil and gas and report to the president. The waivers last until the president or the secretary of state decides further action is appropriate.
Trump used the law's waiver section, which requires a certification to Congress that a waiver serves the national interest.
Washington — President Trump signed an executive order waiving all of the tariffs and Russia sanctions in the Lindsey O. Graham Sanctioning Russia and Iran Act of 2026, saying in the order that the waiver is in the national interests of the United States.
Trump signed the law on September 18. It required the president to raise tariffs and impose most of its sanctions within 30 days of enactment, a deadline that fell on Sunday, October 18. Two of its bans, on American purchases of Russian government debt and on Russian uranium imports, applied from the day it was enacted. The order, dated Friday, October 16, and published by the White House, sets out those measures and waives them in the same document.
What the law required
The law is named for Sen. Lindsey Graham, a South Carolina Republican who was its main backer in Congress and died before it passed. Its Russia title runs from section 101 to section 117. Two sections impose tariffs. Section 112 called for a duty of up to 500% "ad valorem," meaning a percentage of a good's value, on everything imported from Russia, including oil, gas and coal. Section 113 called for tariffs of up to 100% on all goods from countries that buy Russian crude oil or natural gas or help Russia evade oil sanctions. The order spelled out the rates: 500% on Russian goods, and 100% on goods from the five largest importers of Russian crude oil and gas if they knowingly made new purchases on or after October 18, and on goods from the five largest facilitators of Russian oil-sanctions evasion.
Ten sections, 102 through 111, impose sanctions. A sanction in this sense is a legal penalty that cuts a person, company or country off from the American financial system, usually by freezing any property it holds in the United States and barring Americans from dealing with it. Those sections ordered sanctions on people affiliated with or supporting the Russian government and on vessels; on financial institutions and other entities owned or controlled by that government; and bans on transfers of funds involving Russia, on listing or trading Russian companies on U.S. stock exchanges, on new American investment in Russia, on energy exports to Russia and investment in its energy sector, on American purchases of Russian government debt, on financial-messaging services for sanctioned Russian banks, and on imports of Russian uranium.
What the order waives
Citing section 115 of the law, Trump waived any duties under sections 112 and 113. He waived the sanctions and restrictions in sections 103 through 111 in full and in section 102's operative subsections: (a) and (e), which require the reviews and impose the penalties, and (d), the law's requirement that sanctions under earlier executive orders on Russia stay in effect. He also waived section 117, which governs how sanctions end. Section 115 lets the president waive any sanction, restriction or tariff in the law if he sends Congress a written certification that the waiver is in the national interests of the United States and a report explaining why. The order says Trump has sent both.
What still applies
The sections the order does not touch are the law's definitions in section 101, the descriptions in section 102(b) and (c) of who may be sanctioned, the exceptions in section 114, the waiver power itself in section 115, and the implementation and penalty rules in section 116. The law also extends the Iran Sanctions Act of 1996, a separate law, by changing its expiration year from 2026 to 2031; that section sits outside the Russia title and the order does not address it. Section 111 had directed the president to carry out an existing ban on Russian uranium imports under a separate law, which the order does not mention. Although the order waives section 102(d), it states that it does not affect any sanction or other measure under the executive orders issued for the national emergency over the Russian government's "harmful foreign activities," which Trump most recently continued on March 24, 2026, as those measures stood the day before the Graham Act became law, including everyone already sanctioned under them. It directs the U.S. trade representative, with the secretaries of state, treasury and energy, to monitor countries that buy Russian crude oil and natural gas or help Russia evade sanctions, to report regularly to the president, and to flag any circumstance that may call for further action, including on the waivers. The waivers stay in effect until the president or the secretary of state, consulting the treasury secretary and the trade representative, decides "further action is appropriate."
What Russia, Ukraine and a member of Congress said
Kirill Dmitriev, Russian President Vladimir Putin's investment envoy, called the waiver "a truly historic moment" in a post on X. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called the decision "unfortunate" and said the law "could have helped enormously." Rep. Don Beyer, a Virginia Democrat, said in a statement that the waiver "defies clear congressional intent of legislation designed to punish Russia for its illegal war of aggression." China and India, two of the largest buyers of Russian oil, had both raised concerns about the bill.