JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Alcohol and seafood: These are just a few of the imports the United States will no longer accept from Russia following new sanctions announced Friday by President Joe Biden penalizing Russia for invading Ukraine.
Financial experts say these latest sanctions will have a limited effect on the U.S. economy initially but a devastating effect on Russia, adding that these sanctions are directed at stopping the sale of Russia’s signature products to the outside world.
“Putin is an aggressor. He is the aggressor and Putin must pay the price,” Biden said.
Biden said the U.S. is planning to continue to squeeze the Russian economy by abandoning the imports of goods Russia is known for like vodka and caviar. The U.S. is revoking Russia’s most favored nation status as well -- which gives nations low tariffs, few barriers and the highest possible imports allowed.
The formal removal will require action by Congress, and both Republicans and Democrats have signaled their support.
“It’s going to make it harder for Russia to do business with the United States and doing it in unison with other nations to make up half of the global economy will be another crushing blow to the Russian economy suffering very badly from our sanctions,” Biden said.
Americans could suffer in the long term if the war persists when they see the prices of items go up. But financial expert Joe Krier, with IIWII Trading, said the latest sanctions are mainly symbolic.
“This is more about economic pressure on Russia from a headline point of view rather than a direct hit, like cutting off oil imports was the other day,” Krier said.
The ban on U.S. goods to and from Russia also includes high-end watches and high-end clothing. This latest crackdown will also deny Russia the ability to borrow money from multilateral institutions like the World Bank, further cutting off the Kremlin from the rest of the world.
“And the message he’s sending to Putin is, hey, we’re unified here, you know, and we are unified enough to hopefully hold out until the Russian people are just ticked off enough about not getting what they want coming back from us as well because we know Putin will retaliate, any tariff we do, with his own tariffs,” Krier said.
Biden is also pledging to continue to push the penalize wealthy Russians with close ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin, saying the U.S. and its allies are going after their assets.