US president says considering sanctions, tariffs against Russia

US President Donald Trump says he is considering “large-scale” sanctions and tariffs against Russia as he urges the country to reach a “final settlement” on peace with Ukraine.
Trump says he has sent a letter to Iran asking the country to agree to nuclear negotiations; Iran’s foreign minister says Tehran will not enter into talks until Washington suspends its “maximum pressure” policy.‘Very difficult to deal with’: Trump slams Canada over dairy products, lumber
The US president has described Canadian officials as “very difficult to deal with”.

“Canada has been ripping us off for years on tariffs for lumber and for dairy products,” Trump told reporters.

Canada maintains what’s known as a supply management system to protect its dairy farmers and domestic industry.

Trump said he plans to impose “the exact same tariff” on dairy products “unless they drop it”.

“We may do it as early as today, or we’ll wait until Monday or Tuesday. But that’s what we’re going to do; we’re going to charge the same thing. It’s not fair, never has been fair, and they’ve treated our farmers badly”

What is Trump’s ‘maximum pressure’ against Iran?
In one of the early moves of his presidency, Trump ordered government agencies to impose “maximum pressure” on Iran.

But Iran is already under crushing US sanctions targeting major segments of its economy, including the energy and banking sectors.

Trump unleashed hundreds of sanctions against Tehran during his first term as president after nixing the multilateral nuclear deal.

His successor, Joe Biden, had unsuccessfully pushed to restore the nuclear accord. Biden kept all the sanctions in place and added even more penalties.

Trump’s new “maximum pressure” strategy appears to be aimed at fully enforcing the existing sanctions to halt Iranian oil and petrochemical exports, particularly to China, and obliterate the Iranian economy.

In a public memo released last month, the White House directed US agencies to “implement a robust and continual campaign … to drive Iran’s export of oil to zero”.

The early waves of sanctions targeting shipping companies linked to Tehran suggested that the US administration is focused on stemming the flow of Iranian oil sales.

But it remains to be seen whether the strategy will put a significant dent in Iran’s oil revenues.