Trump signs Lindsey Graham Act, opening a 100% tariff path against top buyers of Russian energy

The White House said President Donald Trump signed H.R. 5334, the Lindsey O. Graham Sanctioning Russia and Iran Act of 2026, on Friday, 18 September. The statute expands sanctions on Russian officials, banks, defence networks and the so-called shadow fleet of tankers. It also extends existing Iran sanctions for five years. The clause that will move markets in New Delhi and Beijing is different. It authorises, and in a specified case directs, tariffs of up to 100 percent on goods imported from countries that rank among the five largest buyers of Russian crude oil or natural gas by volume in the 12 months before enactment.

The law takes effect within 30 days of the signature. Implementation is not automatic in every respect. Trump holds wide discretion over which countries are named, what rate is applied, and whether a provision is waived. A gas-related exception exists for a country whose Russian gas purchases were less than 15 percent of Russia’s total gas exports in the relevant period and that has taken “significant steps” to cut those imports.

How the bill reached the Resolute desk

The Senate passed the package 86-11 in August. The House cleared it 262-159 earlier in the week of the signing. The title commemorates Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, who died in July after more than a year of negotiations on the text. The administration supported the final version, including the tariff title, after months in which Trump had treated new Russia sanctions as a possible obstacle to talks with Moscow over Ukraine.

The White House statement used the statute’s formal description: it “authorizes and expands statutory sanctions, tariffs, and prohibitions on Russia and extends existing sanctions on Iran.” That is accurate and incomplete. The political purpose, stated by sponsors through the year, is to raise the cost of the war in Ukraine by squeezing Russia’s energy revenue and by threatening the largest remaining customers.

What it does to India

India remains one of the world’s largest buyers of seaborne Russian crude after 2022. The law does not name India. It names a ranking. If Indian volumes over the prior twelve months place the country inside the top five purchasers of Russian oil or gas, the president is required to impose duties of up to 100 percent on Indian goods entering the United States, unless he uses the waiver tools written into the Act.

That distinction matters. Indian exporters have treated a 100 percent headline as a cliff. The statute is a cliff with a gate. The gate is presidential discretion. Trump can levy a lower rate, delay a determination, or find that a country has taken significant steps. He can also impose the full rate. Indian officials and industry groups have spent the past two days asking which of those paths he intends to take, not whether the legal authority now exists. It does.

The timing collides with other US trade tools already in use against Indian goods and with the separate question of Indian purchases of Iranian or discounted Russian barrels during the wider Middle East war. Apparel and other seasonal exporters have already been rushing spring 2027 US orders under tariff uncertainty. A statutory 100 percent authority changes the risk table even if the first proclamation is milder than the ceiling.

China, Japan and Europe

China is the other large crude buyer in the frame. Japan and some European states appear in the gas discussion. The 15 percent exception was written with allies that still take residual Russian pipeline gas in mind. Whether any EU member qualifies will depend on the volume table the administration publishes after the 30-day clock starts.

The shadow-fleet title is aimed at tankers and facilitators that move Russian oil outside the G7 price-cap system. That part of the law can hit shipowners, insurers and traders in third countries even if the tariff title is waived for a given government.

The 30-day clock

Two calendars now run at once. One is the UN General Assembly week, where Trump will see other leaders while the new authorities sit unused or half-used. The other is the statutory clock that requires a determination on the top five purchasers. Markets will price the determination, not the signing photo.

For New Delhi the useful question is narrow. What share of Russian crude and gas did India take in the year to 18 September 2026, and will the White House treat discounted barrels bought after the Iran war began as the same political fact as barrels bought in 2023 and 2024? The Act does not answer that. The first proclamation will.