The American outlet is silent in Russian – Newspaper Kommersant No. 62 (7507) of 04/11/2023

The more anti-Russian sanctions and tariffs are introduced, the more complicated international trade becomes. A striking example is the introduction of a 200% US import duty on Russian aluminum. As you know, this tariff covers not only primary aluminum from the Russian Federation, but also any aluminum product, regardless of its country of production, containing even a minimal share of Russian metal.

It is clear what Rusal should do with this – the company will leave the US market, whose share in revenue was 4.6% last year. It is more difficult to understand what to do now for American importers of aluminum wires, cables, rods, rods, pipes, foils, aluminum packaging and other products that import them, for example, from China or the UAE.

These countries still buy primary aluminum from Russia and apparently use it in their final products, mixed with metal from other countries, and the origin is not marked on the final product. It turns out that American importers must either pay a duty or somehow prove that there is not a single molecule of Russian aluminum in a particular batch of wires or foil.

The President of the Aluminum Association of Canada, Jean Simard, in a commentary to Platts noted that while it is very easy to prove the origin of a primary metal, it is difficult to do so for a recycled product. “How will you detect the presence of Russian metal if it is not openly and transparently declared? I don’t know,” he admitted.

To the “joy” of American customs officers, the number of directions for the export of Russian aluminum due to sanctions is increasing: according to the IFRS report, Rusal sells its products to at least 15 countries. According to S&P Global, in 2022 China, which still remains the largest trading partner of the United States, increased imports of Russian aluminum and aluminum products by 59%, to 524.5 thousand tons.

In this sense, aluminum products have intermarried with diamonds. Participants in this market are still waiting for the US authorities to set rules for working with diamonds of Russian origin, processed outside of Russia. Last year, the United States banned the import of rough and polished diamonds from the Russian Federation, and ALROSA was included in the SDN list. But Russian rough has traditionally been purchased by India, where 95% of the world’s diamonds are produced.

Rapaport Group Chairman Martin Rapaport, speaking on March 31 at a conference of the Israel Diamond Exchange, said that the OFAC rule on the inadmissibility of purchases from sanctioned companies makes market participants have to check each counterparty, which is difficult to do in an open international market. It is possible that importers of aluminum wires in the US will also have to wait a long time for a response from regulators.