House passes bill to end normal trade relations with Russia, Belarus

The US House of Representatives has easily passed legislation to end normal trade ties with Russia and its ally Belarus over the invasion of Ukraine

The US House of Representatives has easily passed legislation to end normal trade ties with Russia over its invasion of Ukraine, moving quickly to approve the measure after Joe Biden announced his support last week.

The Suspending Normal Trade Relations with Russia and Belarus Act on Friday AEDT passed 424 to eight on a fast-track procedure that requires at least two-thirds support. The bill now heads to the Senate, which has a matching bill with bipartisan support. Democrat majority leader Chuck Schumer said he would work to move it quickly.

The legislation would strip Russia and Belarus – which has been used as a staging ground for the Ukraine invasion – of their most-favoured-nation trade status, a step that would result in higher tariff rates on their imports.

The measure would mark the latest effort by the US and allies to isolate Russia from international commerce, and congress and the White House are exploring further ways to punish Moscow and aid Kyiv.

To maximise the pressure on Russia and Belarus, the bill would give Mr Biden the authority to order additional increases in import duties, pushing them above the rates that would result from simply ending the MFN status.

The legislation also requires the US trade representative to urge Russia to be suspended from the World Trade Organisation and to stop Belarus’s membership application process. It is a symbolic gesture as the WTO doesn’t have a legal framework for terminating a member country – and changing that would require a complex and time-consuming process.

“It is past time to cut off Vladimir Putin’s regime from the benefits of the global trade system,” said Democrat Ron Wyden, the chairman of the Senate finance committee, calling the trade penalties “the harshest economic measures seen in a generation”.

The trade legislation is one of several policies where a bipartisan coalition of politicians has initially pushed for a more aggressive response than the White House. The Biden administration has already imposed a ban on imports of Russian energy, and sanctioned banks and oligarchs.

The Wall Street Journal