Members of the BRICS economic bloc have discussed dumping the U.S. dollar and adopting a new shared currency.
President-elect Donald Trump threatened to impose 100 percent tariffs on members of the BRICS economic bloc who move to adopt a new currency to compete with the U.S. dollar.
“The idea that the BRICS countries are trying to move away from the dollar while we stand by and watch is OVER,” Trump wrote in a Nov. 30 post on his Truth Social profile. “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.”
The BRICS countries—which began as Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa, but have since expanded to Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, and the United Arab Emirates—have been banding together to form an economic counterweight to the United States and European Union. Around 40 countries attended the most recent BRICS summit, held in Kazan, Russia, in October.
The economic bloc has increasingly considered dumping the U.S. dollar and forming a new shared currency in its place.
Part of the U.S. dollar’s strength is its position as the main currency for the international oil trade. BRICS and its partners include numerous fossil fuel producers, and a shift away from the U.S. dollar and toward their own shared currency could undermine the dollar’s position as the oil trade currency.
Trump issued his tariff threat in an effort to head off this BRICS currency.
“They can go find another ’sucker!’ 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,” he stated.
Trump has repeatedly presented tariffs as a tool for the United States to rebalance its economic relationships around the world.
By Ryan Morgan
