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Scott Bessent said the US should increase sanctions on Russian oil producers to force Moscow to negotiate with Ukraine as he criticized the Biden administration for not being stronger than Vladimir Putin’s regime.

Comments on Thursday by Donald Trump’s nominee to be Treasury secretary were pushed oil priceas traders consider the prospect of tighter global crude supplies. The new administration is also expected to target Iranian and Venezuelan oil with tougher sanctions as Trump seeks to increase economic pressure on US rivals.

“As part of (Trump’s) strategy to end the war in Ukraine, I will be 100 percent on board for taking sanctions, especially on Russian oil majors, at a level that will bring the Russian Federation to the table, ” Bessent the senators said.

He admitted that US sanctions on Russian energy were “not enough” because “the previous administration was worried about raising prices during the election”.

International oil benchmark Brent rose more than $1 after Bessent’s comments to above $81 a barrel.

What he said during his confirmation hearing on Capitol Hill came four days ago Trump returned to the White House with a plan to implement tax cuts, higher tariffs and aggressive deregulation, in a major shift from the outgoing Biden administration.

US equities have risen since Trump won the November 5 election, as Wall Street embraced his agenda, with the bosses of the world’s biggest banks – which announced bumper profits this week – saying that the optimism about the economic plans of the new administration has released the “animal spirits”.

However, major bank executives, speaking this week, also warned that Trump’s threats to impose sweeping tariffs would be inflationary.

The billionaire hedge fund boss used his grilling by the Senate Finance Committee – which must approve his nomination before it goes to a full chamber vote – to defend the plans.

While he did not provide new details, Bessent said Trump would use the tariffs to address unfair trade practices, raise revenues for the US government and strike deals with other countries. .

Bessent also said he would push China to buy more U.S. agricultural products, such as corn and soy, under the terms of a purchase deal Trump negotiated with Beijing to ease trade tensions during the first administration of the Republican leader. Trump will continue to aggressively apply export controls on US products going to China, he said.

“There should be a strict screening process for anything that applies to AI, to quantum computing and surveillance, to chips,” he said.

Bessent also stressed his support for extending Trump’s tax cuts beyond their expiration at the end of the year, saying it was “the most important economic issue of the day”.

Failure to extend the cuts for people and businesses, which Trump introduced in 2017, will cause an “economic disaster” for the US, “and as always financial instability, falling in between -middle and working people”. A fierce political battle over tax policy is expected to dominate Congress this year.

In the view of the economy, Bessent said that he believes that inflation will continue to approach the 2 percent target of the Federal Reserve and insisted that the Trump administration will respect the independence of the central bank in monetary policy.

But he warned that the US Treasury will find it difficult to use “borrowing capacity” in times of crises because of America’s deteriorating fiscal position.

“I’m worried because many times the Treasury of the United States has been called to save the country, whether it’s the Civil War, the Great Depression, the second world war, or the recent Covid epidemic,” said Bessent.

He added that “with what we have now, we will find it difficult to do the same”.