House Votes to Suspend Normal Trade Relations With Russia

WASHINGTON — The Home voted overwhelmingly on Thursday to strip Russia of its preferential commerce standing with the USA, shifting to additional penalize the nation’s financial system in response to the invasion of Ukraine.

The lopsided 424-to-8 vote got here after President Biden introduced final week that the USA and its European allies would take new steps to isolate Russia from the worldwide buying and selling system. The laws would permit the USA to impose increased tariffs on Russian items. The entire lawmakers who opposed the measure have been Republicans.

The invoice is the newest in a sequence of measures that lawmakers have permitted to help Ukraine and punish Russia for its invasion. Others embrace a ban on Russian fuel and oil merchandise and, maybe extra considerably, a $13.6 billion navy and humanitarian help bundle.

Senator Chuck Schumer, Democrat of New York and the bulk chief, mentioned he would work to maneuver the Home-passed invoice by way of the Senate “shortly.”

The Home vote got here a day after President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine delivered a searing speech to Congress by way of video hyperlink during which he urged lawmakers to do extra to assist his nation and penalize Russia. His tackle, in addition to a wrenching video he confirmed of Russian-inflicted carnage in his nation, hung closely over the Home flooring on Thursday as lawmakers debated the commerce invoice.

Mr. Zelensky “confirmed us absolutely the horrors that Russia is inflicting on the Ukrainian individuals in full view of the world,” mentioned Consultant Richard E. Neal, Democrat of Massachusetts and the chairman of the Methods and Means Committee. “And he pleaded for us to do extra. With the laws that stands earlier than us at this hour, we intend to reply his name.”

Ana Swanson contributed reporting.