Trump waived the Russia sanctions law's tariffs on October 16, 2026, and Rubio says a decision could take 60 days

President Trump signed an executive order on Friday, October 16, 2026 waiving the tariffs and most of the sanctions in the Lindsey O. Graham Sanctioning Russia and Iran Act, two days before they were due to take effect on October 18. On Saturday Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Trump would take up to 60 days to judge what the measures would do to the US and world economies before deciding whether to impose them. The waiver removes, for now, the threat of 100% tariffs on the largest buyers of Russian oil, a group that includes India and China.

The order uses the waiver power in Section 115 of the law, which Trump signed on September 18, and requires a written national-interest certification to Congress. It has no end date and lasts until the President or the Secretary of State decides otherwise, so the 60 days Rubio described is a review period the administration set itself.

What the waiver covers

White House spokeswoman Taylor Rogers said enforcing the measures now would interfere with US efforts to negotiate a peace deal between Ukraine and Russia. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called the waiver wrong and said in a Bloomberg interview on Sunday that steps had been taken to push Ukraine toward capitulation.

Why it matters for oil

The secondary tariffs were the part of the law aimed at Russia's export revenue: a 100% tariff on any large buyer that kept importing Russian crude would have forced India and China to choose between Russian oil and the US market. Rubio named India as a partner that still depends heavily on Russian supply. With the tariffs waived, those barrels keep flowing at a time when the market is short of supply for other reasons. In the week to October 16 Brent rose 4.9% and WTI 10.4%, after a missile was intercepted near Saudi Arabia's Yanbu port, a drone struck Russia's Ryazan refinery and attacks continued around the Strait of Hormuz.

On October 16 Brent rose 3.7% to its highest settlement since May 19 and touched $110 during the session, while WTI gained 3.5% to its highest since September 17. The waiver was the second easing of Russia measures in October: about a week earlier the administration had temporarily waived sanctions on Russian diesel, and Rubio said Russia would initially supply more than 300,000 metric tons of diesel to the United States. On October 14 a US official said the administration was also considering easing sanctions on shadow-fleet tankers so they could carry oil that is not itself sanctioned, to bring down record freight rates.

What happens next

Rubio's 60-day window runs to mid-December. Sanctions that predate the new law stay in force, and the order lets the President reinstate any waived measure at any time, so the tariffs on Russian oil buyers can return without new legislation. The same week, US officials floated moving some frozen Russian central bank assets into a vehicle supervised by Washington to restart peace talks, and European officials rejected the idea, the Financial Times reported.