Trump asking the EU to slap 100% prices on India and China lifts eyebrows

The reports that US President Donald Trump asked the European Union to slap prices up to 100% on China and India for their Russian oil purchases has raised eyebrows on both Atlantic sides, Europe considered to be unlikely to acquiesce at the request of the White House.

Trump made the proposal – reported by the Financial Times and confirmed to CNBC by two familiar sources with the issue – when it was called Tuesday to a meeting with senior US officials and the EU in Washington. The United States was also ready to “reflect” all the prices imposed by Europe on the two countries, added the FT report. The White House has not yet responded to the request for CNBC comments.

Invited to comment on Trump’s offer, a spokesperson for the European Commission told CNBC on Wednesday that he could not disclose the details of the meeting due to confidentiality, noting: “The EU has engaged with all the global partners concerned, including India and China, in the context of its efforts to apply the sanctions. This commitment will continue.”

The Commission stressed that its 19th measures are packing its preparation against Moscow, saying that it had “added new sanctions tools that allow us to target the bypass through third countries” and that the United States was a “crucial partner” in Brussels efforts to express pressure on the economy of the Russian war.

Asking the EU to impose prices on the main Russian energy customers, India and China were considered another way to punish their profession with Moscow and put pressure on Russia to end the war in Ukraine.

However, European officials seem to be wary of the alienation of China and India, and the time of Trump’s request has raised the eyebrows because he negotiates a trade agreement with New Delhi.

The United States has already imposed a 50% rate on India, which includes a punitive 25% obligation for its Russian oil purchases. India says that the prices are “unjust, unjustified and unreasonable”, while calling the United States and the EU trade with Russia.

Ian Bremmer, founder of Eurasia Group, told CNBC on Wednesday that the last request from the White House on the EU was “difficult to compete with Trump’s efforts to conclude a commercial agreement with India and China, that he prioritizes the obtaining of a cease-fire in Ukraine (sent an email like things like transatlantic collective security and determination)” Bremmer in CNBC comments.

“It looks more like an attempt to modify the responsibility for a stronger response to Europe, creating political coverage for the American inaction on the sanctions front while avoiding a direct blow for American-Chinese relations.”

It is unlikely that the EU is accepted, according to analysts. Not only would the block be wary to adopt Trump’s controversial pricing strategy and burn his own bridges with India and China – despite an economic rivalry with Asian superpowers – but the EU has its own complicated trade relations with Russia.

“Everyone knows if the Europeans could not wean on Russian energy itself more than 3.5 years in the war, they will certainly not cut themselves off from their first goods import supplier,” said Bremmer d’urasia Group.

Other analysts have noted that Europe, unlike Trump, has an aversion to impose prices as part of a commercial game book, arguing that the block should not be attracted by its commercial wars.

“Person in Europe thinks that prices are an effective commercial policy tool … Europe would prefer diplomacy to solve problems, rather than the outright trade war,” said Bill Blain, market strategist and founder of London Wind Shift Capital on Wednesday in his morning porridge newsletter.

“Europe’s response should be” no “. Trump kicked the Hornets’s nest – let him manage the consequences.

The EU has a complicated commercial relationship with Russia. This is likely to prevent the block from punishing other nations to do business with Moscow, when the EU also does – although a much lower level as before the start of the Ukraine War in 2022.

Bilateral EU trade with its neighbor was 67.5 billion euros ($ 78.1 billion) in 2024, according to European Commission data, EU imports were worth 35.9 billion euros and dominated by fuel and mining products. EU exports to Russia totaled 31.5 billion euros in 2024.

The EU has struggled to completely weaned imports of Russian gas and LNG (liquefied natural gas). The share of Russia of EU pipeline gas imports increased from more than 40% in 2021 to approximately 11.6% in 2024, while Moscow represented less than 19% of the total imports of gas and LNG in terms of gas and LNG in 2024, notes commission data.

The United States has encouraged its European allies to go to American LNG.

Trump said that the EU was committed, as part of its trade agreement with the United States – which saw 15% of rates imposed on block exports to states – to buy US LNG, oil and nuclear products with a scheduled gap worth 750 billion dollars over the next three years.

US Interior Secretary Doug Burgum told CNBC on Wednesday that the Trump administration was trying to increase the American market share in the energy sector in Europe.

“”[Exporting] Lng would be one of the simplest things, [you can] Put it on a ship, send it here. Move Russian gas, drive their market share to zero in Europe and increase American market share. It’s great for America, ideal for our allies, and we stop funding the Russian side of war, “he told CNBC in Gastech 2025.