美国对伊朗实施新制裁并加征无人机关税

Bloomberg's Tyler Kendall joins us now from Washington, D.C.. Tyler, what do we know about what's different about this economic warfare? Well, Lisa, at this point we really are awaiting those further details, though it does mark the administration's latest bid to get Iran to the negotiating table. The U.S. Treasury Secretary went on to say that this will be a, quote, one two punch once fully rolled out. We know that Iran's economy has already taken a massive hit, with central bank data showing inflation reaching, uh, year over year 77%, though at this point, Iran has weathered waves of sanctions.

Data cited by Bloomberg News shows that nearly 20 to 100 new ones have been imposed since 2018. And at this point, the limited financial relief that Iran was granted months ago wasn't enough to keep the cease fire in place. This has, in part, led our own analysts at Bloomberg Economics to say that a dialing up of the pressure could very likely include targeting Chinese purchases of Iranian crude, though that in and of itself poses risks to the Washington and Beijing a truce just about a month away from the Chinese president, XI Jinping, visiting here in Washington.

Lisa, the Treasury secretary, made very clear that the U.S. will continue to enforce its naval blockade. And we got some of, uh, rather optimistic comments, if you will, from the energy secretary last night, who says that the U.S. ability to escort ships continues to grow. But as Anne-Marie mentioned, at the top there, we saw at least two UAE state owned tankers hit while trying to transit through the strait last night.

Tyler, while there is this economic fury that is going to be imposed in the Middle East, there's also a question of tariffs that are as much as 100% on imported drones coming at the same time. This seems to be targeting a different potential country. Can you talk about what the significance of this is? So Lisa, this is going to be under section 232. So that means that it's part of the US's national security concerns when it comes to drone and their components being imported into the U.S. the statement doesn't explicitly mentioned China, but when you actually look through the details, it becomes rather evident.

Plus, couple that with some recent actions taken by the FCC targeting China's tech exports, larger drones with military capabilities are going to face up to a 100% tariff, while smaller drones will face a 25% tariff. But it really does matter at the country of origin, China is going to pay or face levies, uh, of that higher rate. But allied nations that have struck trade deals with the US will be at 15%, the UK even at a lower, more preferential 10% rate.

Lisa, this also really has to do with the administration trying to bolster the domestic defense industrial base. I had reporting last week, as a person familiar with the matter told me that the U.S. Army is set to purchase at least $400 million worth of counter drone lasers from the company AeroVironment. I bring that up because it marks the Pentagon's first such purchase contract for that type of weapon.