Trump threatens BRICS countries of 100% tariff if they drop dollar as currency

Washington, Dec 1: President-elect Donald Trump on Saturday warned BRICS countries against any move to replace the US dollar and has sought a commitment from the nine-member group that includes India, Russia, China, and Brazil.

BRICS, formed in 2009, is the only major international group of which the United States is not a part. Its other members are South Africa, Iran, Egypt, Ethiopia, and the United Arab Emirates. Over the past few years a few of its member countries, in particular Russia and China, are seeking an alternative to the US Dollar or create own BRICS currency. India has so far not been part of the move.

On Saturday, Trump warned BRICS nations against such a move.

“The idea that the BRICS Countries are trying to move away from the Dollar while we stand by and watch is OVER,” the president-elect said in a post on Truth Social, a platform owned by him.

“We require a commitment from these Countries that they will neither create a new BRICS Currency, nor back any other Currency to replace the mighty U.S. Dollar or, they will face 100% Tariffs and should expect to say goodbye to selling into the wonderful U.S. Economy,” Trump warned.

“They can go find another ‘sucker!’ There is no chance that the BRICS will replace the US Dollar in International Trade, and any Country that tries should wave goodbye to America,” he said. At the 2023 summit in South Africa, BRICS countries committed to study the feasibility of a new common currency. A proposal in this regard was made by the Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula de Silva.

India, an important pillar of BRICS, has said it is against de-dollarisation.

“…ask you about de-Dollarization as a possibility for the world. At times India has expressed interest in alternative currency. It can serve as a reserve mechanism. I wonder how do you see that right now what you see as the role of the dollar and these discussions about your national policy? India’s External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said during his appearance at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace this fall.

“I think you have us confused for someone else because we have never actively targeted the dollar. That’s not part of either our economic policy or our political or our strategic policy. Some others may have,” Jaishankar said.

“What I will tell you is a natural concern there. We often have trade partners who do not have dollars to take. So, we now have to look at whether we forgo dealings with them or do we find some settlement which works otherwise. So, there’s no, I can say malicious intent vis-a-vis the dollar in business. WE are trying to do our business,” he said.

“Sometimes you make it difficult in the use of dollars. We have some trade partners with whom trade in dollars becomes difficult because of your policies. We have to obviously look for workarounds. But for us, as we spoke about rebalancing, we spoke about multiple obviously all of this is also going to reflect on currencies and economic needs,” said the External Affairs Minister on October 1 this year.