Donald Trump threatens to impose 10% Tariff on BRICS Member Nations.

US President Donald Trump has once again threatened to impose an additional 10% Tariff on the Member Nations of BRICS, while terming BRICS as a ‘little group’ that wants to take over the “dominance of the dollar”, which is evidently the second time within a span of 10 days.

“…You have this little group called BRICS. It’s fading out fast, but BRICS is, they wanted to try and take over the dollar, the dominance of the dollar, and the standard of the dollar”, Trump have lambasted while addressing reporters at the White House on Friday. His Friday threats came at a time, during an event to sign the GENIUS Act, the first cryptocurrency bill made into law, which establishes a regulatory framework for stable coin cryptocurrencies.

Weeks after Trump’s initial announcement of reciprocal tariffs on countries across the globe, the BRICS bloc during the two day summit in Rio De Janeiro earlier in the month, took indirect swipe at the US and raised serious concerns about the unilateral tariff hike. According to the member nations, the tariff hike was inconsistent with the World Trade Organisation rules, that will threaten global trade.

Earlier, this month on the 08^th. July, President Trump claimed that BRICS was established to “hurt” the US and “degenerate” the dollar and warned that the member countries of the bloc would face a 10% tariff. Again, this Friday, Trump reiterated his concern about dollar as he said, the BRICS nations “had a meeting the following day and almost nobody showed up… they didn’t want to be tariffed. It’s amazing. No, we’re not going to let the dollar slide. If we have a smart president, you’re never going to let the dollar slide”.

Underscoring the dollar’s status as the world’s reserve currency “for generations to come”, Trump said the reserve currency is “so important. If we lost that, that would be like losing a world war. We can never let anyone play games with us, and that’s why when I heard about this group from BRICS- six countries basically, I hit them very, very hard and if they ever form, if they ever really formed in a meaningful way, it will end very quickly… I don’t think they’ll even do it. They’re virtually afraid of me”.

Leaders of the BRICS nations — Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, United Arab Emirates, Ethiopia, Indonesia, and Iran — met in Brazil for the 17th BRICS Summit on July 06 and 07. The BRICS group has expanded to include Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, and the United Arab Emirates

Trump on July 6 had threatened to impose an additional 10% tariff on countries aligning themselves with the “anti-American” policies of the BRICS grouping.

Meanwhile, India and the US teams have concluded the fifth round of talks for the proposed bilateral trade agreement (BTA) in Washington on July 17, an official said in New Delhi. India’s chief negotiator and special secretary in the Department of Commerce Rajesh Agrawal led the team for negotiations that were held for four days from July 14 in the US capital.

These deliberations are important as both sides are looking at finalising an interim trade deal before August 1, which marks the end of the suspension period of Trump tariffs imposed on dozens of countries, including India, currently at 26%.

Team Maverick