United States President Donald Trump said yesterday that any country doing business with Iran would face a 25 percent tariff on all trade with the United States, as Washington considers a response to the situation in Iran, where the largest anti-government protests in years are taking place.
"Effective immediately, any country doing business with the Islamic Republic of Iran will pay a 25 percent tariff on any and all business done with the United States," Trump said in a post on Twitter.
Tariffs are paid by American importers of goods from those countries.
Iran, a member of the OPEC oil producing group, has been under heavy sanctions from Washington for years. It exports most of its oil to China, while Turkey, Iraq, the United Arab Emirates and India are among its other major trading partners.
"This order is final and binding," Trump said, without providing further details.
There was no official documentation on the White House website about the policy, nor information on the legal basis Trump would use to impose the tariffs, nor whether they would target all of Iran's trading partners.
The Chinese embassy in Washington criticized Trump's approach, saying China would take "all necessary measures" to protect its interests and opposed "any illegal unilateral sanctions and the long arm of jurisdiction."
"China's position against indiscriminate imposition of tariffs is consistent and clear. Tariff wars and trade wars have no winners, and coercion and pressure cannot solve problems," a spokesman for the Chinese Embassy in Washington said on the X platform.
Japan and South Korea, which signed trade agreements with the United States last year, said today they were closely monitoring developments.
"... we plan to take all necessary measures once the US government's specific actions become clear," South Korea's trade ministry said in a statement.
Japan's Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Masanao Ozaki told reporters that Tokyo would "carefully examine the specific content of any measures once they become clear, as well as their potential impact on Japan, and respond appropriately."
Iran, which fought a 12-day war with US ally Israel last year and whose nuclear facilities were bombed by the US military in June, is now seeing its largest anti-government demonstrations in years.
Trump said the US could hold meetings with Iranian officials and is in contact with the Iranian opposition, while increasing pressure on their leaders, including threats of military action.
Tehran said on Monday it was keeping communication channels with Washington open as Trump considers how to respond to the situation in Iran, which represents one of the toughest tests for clerical rule in the country since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
The demonstrations have evolved from complaints about dire economic problems to open calls for the overthrow of the deeply entrenched clerical establishment.
The US-based human rights organization HRANA said it had confirmed the deaths of 599 people – 510 protesters and 89 members of the security forces – since the protests began on December 28.
While airstrikes are one of many options Trump has, "diplomacy is always the first option for the president," White House press secretary Carolyn Leavitt said Monday.
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