Donald Trump will not accept any BRICS currency competing with the US dollar – 100% trade tariffs are on the cards.
“There is no chance that the BRICS will replace the U.S. Dollar in International Trade, and any Country that tries should wave goodbye to America”, the president-elect declares.
“The idea that the BRICS Countries are trying to move away from the Dollar while we stand by and watch is OVER. 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”, he declares on the Truth Social platform.
The BRICS alliance includes economically important countries such as China, India, Russia and Brazil, and during the election campaign, Trump campaigned on imposing sweeping trade tariffs on those allegedly threatening the US economy – threats that have escalated in the past week.
Leaders in Brazil and Russia have suggested that the group should create a common BRICS currency to reduce the dominance of the US dollar in global trade, although the form and functioning of such a currency has yet to be agreed.
Whether Donald actually intends to impose trade tariffs on the countries in question is not entirely certain – it could also be a negotiating tactic.
“Escalate to de-escalate”
Republican Senator Ted Cruz believes this is the case, pointing out that US threats of tariffs against Mexico and Canada “immediately has produced action” that benefited the US in various ways.
Trump’s nominee for Treasury Secretary, Scott Bessent, agrees, saying that Trump is “at the end of the day, a free trader”.
– It’s escalate to de-escalate, he says.
In practice, tariffs impose a domestic tax on goods as they enter the country – proportional to the value of imports. So a car imported into the US worth $50,000, subject to a 25% tariff, would face a tax of $12,500. If Trump’s threat became a reality, the tariff on the car above would instead be $50,000 – the same as the purchase price of the car.
The President-elect has previously told his voters that trade tariffs “will not be a cost to you – it will be a cost to another country”, which many economists believe is misleading.
