President Trump threatened late Sunday to impose an additional tariff on countries that align themselves with the policies of BRICS nations, after the group expressed “serious concerns” over countries imposing unilateral tariffs.
“Any Country aligning themselves with the Anti-American policies of BRICS, will be charged an ADDITIONAL 10% Tariff. There will be no exceptions to this policy,” Mr. Trump said in a Truth Social post. He did not elaborate, nor did he say what BRICS policies he was referring to.
The BRICS countries — originally comprised of Brazil, Russia, India and China, and later expanded to include South Africa and a handful of other nations — began a two-day summit on Sunday in Rio de Janeiro. The group issued a statement that appeared to criticize the Trump administration’s tariffs and foreign policies, though it did not directly mention the president or the United States.
The statement said that unilateral tariffs reduced global trade, disrupted supply chains and introduced uncertainty into international commerce. And it condemned military strikes on Iran last month, calling them “a violation of international law.” The United States joined Israel in attacking Iran in what both countries called a campaign aimed at Tehran’s nuclear facilities.
It was unclear what nations Mr. Trump’s threat applied to. The BRICS group was set up in 2009 to increase the influence of the world’s biggest emerging economies. Besides the original members, it now includes Egypt, Ethiopia, Indonesia, Iran and the United Arab Emirates.
Mr. Trump announced stiff tariffs on nearly every trading partner in April. The White House then paused those tariffs for 90 days, until July 9, to try to win concessions, but only two preliminary deals, with Britain and Vietnam, have been announced.
It is not the first time that the president has threatened BRICS nations. In June, he warned that if the countries replaced the U.S. dollar as a reserve currency, he would impose a 100 percent tariff. He had first made the threat after winning election last November. The month before that, a report prepared by Russia for a BRICS summit had called for the dollar’s central role in global finance to be “reassessed.”
