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US President Donald Trump said Friday that the United States would not impose a ban on diesel exports after European countries agreed to release fuel from their strategic reserves.
“It was never really on the table. But what Europe did was a great thing,” Trump told reporters at the White House when asked whether the export ban was off the table.
Trump said he had asked European countries to release their reserves and praised the move as a major contribution to global energy supplies.
“I asked for it. Europe has a lot of diesel and they’re going to be making a major world contribution — and so are we,” he said.
Trump had said on September 22 that he supported a diesel export ban, which could have lowered fuel prices for US consumers while tightening supplies in international markets. As recently as Thursday, he said his administration was still considering the measure.
The shift came after G7 countries agreed Friday to release 100 million barrels of diesel and crude oil from their reserves over four months to ease global energy supply concerns linked to the war in Iran.
The move comes as Trump’s Republican Party faces the risk of losing control of Congress in next month’s midterm elections, with voters increasingly concerned about the conflict and its impact on energy prices.
