Russian Diesel License Leaves U.S. Import Costs Unsettled
OFAC's Russian diesel license leaves U.S. buyers facing an unresolved import-ban dispute and a separate October 18 deadline for additional tariff action.
For the import manager approving a purchase, the task is to address U.S. admission and additional duties in the contract before accepting a firm delivery commitment. The April expiry answers how long the present license runs. It supplies neither a guarantee of entry nor a fixed tariff for shipments made during that period.
The license covers the transaction, within named sanctions programs
OFAC General License 135, issued October 9, authorizes Russian-origin diesel transactions otherwise prohibited by 31 CFR parts 587 and 589. It covers sale, delivery, offloading and importation, expressly including imports into the United States, through one minute after midnight EDT on April 7, 2027. The express exception concerns debits to accounts at U.S. financial institutions held by Russia's central bank, National Wealth Fund and Ministry of Finance.
The one-page instrument contains no tonnage ceiling or price condition. Its April deadline also comes without a provision allowing a contract signed before expiry to be completed afterward. The terms should be checked against the payment, delivery and offloading steps the proposed transaction will require.
A qualifying transaction does not require a separate application for an OFAC specific license. That is the distinction in OFAC FAQ 74 on general and specific licenses. The relief is commercially useful, although a bank must still assess the actual transaction and any restrictions outside the two covered programs. Its willingness to process a payment cannot establish the customs treatment in the buyer's cost model.
The import statute leaves a question the license does not explain
The Ending Importation of Russian Oil Act, sections 2 and 3, bans Russian products classified in HTS chapter 27. Congress provided a termination process requiring presidential determinations about an agreement accepted by Ukraine for Russian withdrawal and cessation of hostilities, the absence of an immediate military threat to NATO members, and Ukrainians' right to choose their government.
Consultation and a report to the specified committees must precede certification by at least 45 calendar days. Termination takes effect 90 calendar days after certification unless Congress enacts a resolution of disapproval during that period.
The statute also directs implementation consistent with actions under Executive Order 14066. The order's sections 1(b), 5 and 6 contemplate licensing exceptions and give Treasury implementation authority, subject to applicable law. Those provisions make the legal question more specific than whether an agency can disregard a statute. It is whether the preserved implementation authority supports this temporary diesel permission alongside Congress's termination procedure.
In their October 11 statement on Russian diesel imports, a bipartisan group of senators said the decision violated the 2022 law and alleged that the administration had not supplied the required consultation or explanation. That is the lawmakers' position. GL 135 expressly permits U.S. imports, but gives no account of its interaction with the statute. The records reviewed here do not settle that dispute.
A purchase approval should therefore record the legal basis on which U.S. delivery is being accepted and what happens if entry is restricted before the cargo arrives. This is a recommendation for allocating commercial risk, not a finding that CBP has refused a shipment.
A new license does not inherit every old-license exception
The 2026 sanctions law, section 112, directs an increase in duties on Russian goods within 30 days of its September 18 enactment. October 18 is that statutory deadline. Petroleum products are expressly covered, and the additional rate can be up to 500 percent. The ceiling is not a finding that a fixed 500 percent duty is currently payable on a diesel cargo.
Section 114(h) deserves close attention. Paragraph (1) exempts U.S. persons operating under general licenses issued before enactment from the title's application. Paragraph (2) preserves Treasury's authority to extend licenses or issue new ones. GL 135 was issued three weeks after enactment.
The two paragraphs do different work. Treasury's continued power to issue a license does not move that license's issuance date backward or automatically establish the paragraph (1) exception. For this purchase, a claim that GL 135 also removes a section 112 duty would need its own legal basis.
Section 115 of the same law permits duty waivers following a national-interest certification and explanatory report to Congress. GL 135 itself supplies no duty waiver, rate or entry instruction. The buyer needs the applicable implementing measure or relief document before replacing a tariff contingency with a settled charge.
Traverse's earlier analysis of tariff relief after a Ukraine peace agreement concerned duties on goods from third countries. This transaction involves Russian diesel itself. Its immediate tariff provision is section 112, rather than the separate section 113 framework for countries buying Russian crude oil or natural gas or facilitating sanctions evasion.
Allocate the costs before committing the cargo
The following purchase-file comparison applies to Russian-origin diesel intended for U.S. delivery as of October 13, 2026. It draws on the license and statutes above. The contract provisions are suggested commercial terms, not government filing requirements.
Record in the purchase file
What it establishes
What could change the decision
Assessment against GL 135
Coverage of the proposed transaction under the named OFAC programs
Amendment, revocation, expiry or a transaction outside its terms
Documented U.S. admission basis
The legal position supporting the intended entry
Agency clarification, legislation or a court order affecting admission
Applicable duty measure or waiver
The additional duty assumption for the shipment
A new rate, effective date, exception or waiver
Agreed purchase and delivery terms
Which party bears added duties, delay or failure of delivery
A condition allowing repricing, suspension or cancellation
A supplier may offer a fixed product price while passing every new import charge to the buyer. That would leave the delivered cost open even if the sanctions analysis were sound. The agreement should identify the importer of record and allocate additional duties explicitly. Delay costs and the options following an entry restriction need their own treatment, including a delay that carries offloading beyond the license period.
The next records that can settle those assumptions are an official explanation of the admission basis and an applicable tariff measure or waiver. Any change to GL 135 also requires review before the remaining transaction steps proceed. Until then, approval can be conditional on those terms being resolved, with a clear point at which the buyer can reprice or walk away.
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