In what would mark a significant new escalation of the sanctions placed on Russia as a result of its invasion of Ukraine, U.S. Secretary of State Blinken said on Sunday that the United States and its European allies were considering a ban on Russian oil imports. Speaking to CNN, Blinken said: “We are now talking to our European partners and allies to look in a coordinated way at the prospect of banning the import of Russian oil while making sure that there is still an appropriate supply of oil in world markets…That’s a very active discussion as we speak.”
How hard would a ban from these countries hit the Russian economy? As our chart using the latest UN Comtrade data shows, the combined effect of a US-EU import stop would be significant despite China being the largest recipient of Russian oil by a large margin. Even just taking into account the countries included at the top end of this list as displayed here, a ban would remove over 40 percent of Russia’s trade value from oil exports. Counting the imports from all EU countries and the United States, this figure surpasses 48 percent – trade worth $35 billion in 2020.
Author Martin Armstrong