The United States is considering the possible imposition of duties on palladium supplies from Russia

The American authorities may consider imposing duties on supplies of Russian palladium to the United States for reasons of national security of the state. This was announced on July 16 by United States Deputy Secretary of State Michael Rigas at a hearing in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

According to him, palladium is an "incredibly important" metal that is used not only to create advanced electronics and cars, but also to manufacture ammunition. It is mined in three places — South Africa, Montana and Russia, which literally "flooded the market", allegedly artificially affected the price of this metal and made the American supply chain vulnerable.

"If we do not take measures to curb Russian dumping <...>, American supply chains will become much more vulnerable <...> critical supply chains need to be consolidated for the sake of national security <...> I would present a multilateral approach involving the imposition of duties on Russian palladium," Rigas said.

He noted that the introduction of possible duties is due to the fact that Russian palladium allegedly costs American companies the layoffs of hundreds of employees, as well as the fact that the purchase of this metal, in his opinion, is an indirect financial support for Russia in the conflict with Ukraine.

Tariff schedule: The US has imposed duties on medicines and copper

Brazil has become the main victim of Trump's policies

On July 14, US President Donald Trump announced that the United States intends to impose 100% duties on Russia if there is no progress on Ukraine. Later, in an interview with Izvestia, economists assessed the impact of President Trump's possible duties on the domestic market. Vasily Koltashov, for example, said that potential measures were aimed at the United States rather than Russia, and another expert, Alexei Rodin, stressed that fertilizers were also supplied to the United States, without which "it would be very bad for an American farmer."