President Trump unveiled tariffs of at least 10% Wednesday on virtually the entire world, with one notable exception: Russia.
Axar.az reports citing Axios, Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt stated that that Russia was left off because U.S. sanctions already "preclude any meaningful trade."
However, the U.S. still trades more with Russia than with countries like Mauritius or Brunei that did make Trump's tariffs list. Even remote island territories like Tokelau (pop. 1,500) in the South Pacific and Svalbard (pop. 2,500) in the Arctic Circle — territories of New Zealand and Norway, respectively —were listed for tariffs.
However, Leavitt noted that Cuba, Belarus and North Korea were also not included because existing tariffs and sanctions on them are already so high.
Leavitt noted that Russia could still face "additional strong sanctions."
The other two major economies excluded from Trump's otherwise exhaustive list were Canada and Mexico. Leavitt confirmed that was because Trump already imposed 25% tariffs on both.