Trump Vows 10 Percent Tariff on BRICS Over Dollar Challenge
(MENAFN) President Donald Trump has declared that the BRICS alliance is "fading out fast" and cautioned that any efforts to undermine the U.S. dollar will face severe economic consequences.
Speaking from the White House on Friday, Trump condemned what he described as BRICS’ push to challenge the dollar’s supremacy. “They wanted to try and take over the dollar, the dominance of the dollar... And I said, anybody that’s in the BRICS consortium of nations, we're going to tariff you 10%.”
The former president emphasized Washington’s commitment to defending the dollar’s global reserve status. “The reserve currency is so important. You know, if we lost that, that would be like losing a World War.”
Trump argued that the U.S. must be proactive in countering any attempts to weaken the dollar. Washington “can never let anyone play games,” he said, stressing that he has chosen to “hit them [BRICS] very, very hard.” He added, “If they ever really form in a meaningful way, it will end very quickly.”
Trump further claimed that his tariff threats had effectively disrupted this month’s BRICS summit in Rio de Janeiro. “They had a meeting the following day and almost nobody showed up,” he stated.
Despite Trump’s assertions, the BRICS summit saw participation from numerous high-ranking officials. While Chinese President Xi Jinping did not attend, Chinese Premier Li Qiang represented Beijing. Russian President Vladimir Putin was also absent in person but delivered remarks via video link.
Leaders attending in person included Brazil’s President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi, South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa, and Indonesia’s President Prabowo Subianto, along with heads of state from Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, and the UAE.
Back in October, Russia’s Finance Minister Anton Siluanov reported that 65% of trade within BRICS was conducted in national currencies, with the use of the U.S. dollar and euro falling below 30%.
Earlier this week, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov stated that BRICS members are evaluating alternatives to the dollar in order “to shield themselves from US arbitrariness.”
Still, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov noted that BRICS is not intended to compete with Washington directly. However, he cautioned that “the language of threats and manipulation… is not the way to speak to members of this group.”
Legal Disclaimer:
EIN Presswire provides this news content "as is" without warranty of any kind. We do not accept any responsibility or liability for the accuracy, content, images, videos, licenses, completeness, legality, or reliability of the information contained in this article. If you have any complaints or copyright issues related to this article, kindly contact the author above.
