Biden will keep using U.S. sanctions weapon but with sharper aim - sources

But when Biden takes office on Jan. 20, he is expected to quickly begin recalibrating Trump’s blunt-force approach while taking time to deliberate before making any major changes with top sanctions targets like Iran and China, the sources said.

His challenge will be to sort out which sanctions to keep, which to undo and which to expand. This will come after four years in which Trump has imposed punitive economic measures at a record pace – often unilaterally - but has failed to bend U.S. rivals to his will.

The revised strategy will be crafted with help from a broad review of sanctions programs that will begin soon after Biden’s inauguration, the sources said on condition of anonymity.

But even before this assessment is complete, Biden is expected to make clear that sanctions will remain a central instrument of U.S. power - although it will no longer be deployed with the “America First” bravado that has driven Trump’s foreign policy.

“It won’t be a pullback or a push forward,” said one person close to Biden’s transition team. “It will be a readjustment in the use of the sanctions tool.”

Among the early possibilities, according to two sources, could be lifting sanctions Trump imposed in September on officials of the International Criminal Court over its investigation into whether the U.S. military committed war crimes in Afghanistan, a move denounced by European allies.

Biden could also match British and European Union sanctions against Russians over the poisoning of Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny, said one person familiar with the matter. Moscow has denied any involvement.