1. Donald Trump: BRICS Nations Lack Leverage Over US
US President Donald Trump on Monday said there could be 100 per cent tariff BRICS nations, including India. This move could have a major impact on the trade relations between Washington and New Delhi.
US President Donald Trump has threatened tariffs on BRICS nations earlier as well. (AP)
Donald Trump's announcement came just after he took oath as the 47th President of the United States on Monday.
Speaking to reporters while signing executive orders at the Oval Office, Trump said, "As a BRICS nation...they'll have a 100 per cent tariff if they so much as even think about doing what they thought, and therefore they'll give it up immediately", making a reference to the reduced usage of dollar bill in global trade.
The US President further said his statement should not be seen as a threat but as a clear stance on the matter.
He also disagreed to his predecessor Joe Biden's comments about US being in a vulnerable position, saying that America holds leverage over the BRICS nations.
"If the BRICS nations want to do that, that's OK, but we're going to put at least a 100 per cent tariff on the business they do with the United States...It's not even a threat. In face, since I made that statement, Biden said, they have us over a barrel. I said, no, we have them over a barrel. And there's no way they're going to be able to do that," Trump told reporters.
Even before being sworn in as the President, Trump had in December 2024 threatened the BRICS nation of levying 100 per cent tariff. He said that he would need commitments that they would not create a new currency as an alternative to the US dollar.
“The idea that the BRICS Countries are trying to move away from the Dollar while we stand by and watch is OVER,” Donald Trump had said in a post on his Truth Social network.
At the time, India's external affairs minister S Jaishankar had said that New Delhi has "no interest" in weakening the US dollar.
At the Doha Forum in December 2024, Jaishankar had recalled the good relationship India had with the first Trump administration.
"There a personal relation between PM Modi and Trump...Where the BRICS remarks was concerned. We've always said that India has never been for de-dolarisation, right now there is no proposal to have a BRICS currency. The BRICS do discuss financial transrations...US is our largest trade partner, we have no interest in weakening the dollar at all," he had said.
The ten-member BRICS group includes India, Russia, China, Brazil, South Africa, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Indonesia, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
The BRICS group have been working towards reducing the dominance of the US dollar in the global financial system by replacing it a brand new global currency.
Notably, Trump and his economic advisers have been discussing ways to punish allies and adversaries alike, whoever seeks to go up against the dollar in bilateral trade. Time and again the US President has stressed that he wants the US dollar to remain the world's reserve currency.
At a summit in 2023, the BRICS nations had discussed the issue of de-dollarization after the backlash against the US dollar dominance gained traction in 2022 when Washington led efforts to impose economic sanctions on Russia.
Russian President Vladimir Putin had at the plenary session of the BRICS summit in 2023 stressed that the group nations should focus on expanding settlements and trades in national currencies and subsequently improve cooperation between banks.
On the very first day of his return to the White House, Donald Trump signed a bunch of executive orders, including the halting of 78 of those orders brought in by former President Joe Biden.
From immigration plans to regulatory freeze to signing an order for withdrawing US out of the Paris climate accord, Trump signed off on several key orders.
Additionally, he also said that he was thinking of imposing 25 per cent tariffs on Canada and Mexico by February 1.
2. Trump Announces Trading 'Overhaul', Warns Of 100% Tariffs On BRICS Nations | WION Dispatch
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