United States President Donald Trump has threatened to hike tariffs against the BRICS economic bloc after the group offered indirect criticism of trade wars and the recent military attacks in Iran.
On Monday, Trump took aim at the 10-member bloc, which seeks to strengthen emerging economies, framing its interests as adversarial to the US’s.
“Any Country aligning themselves with the Anti-American policies of BRICS, will be charged an ADDITIONAL 10% Tariff,” Trump wrote in a post. “There will be no exceptions to this policy. Thank you for your attention to this matter!”
BRICS is named for its founding members, Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. But it has grown to include other countries, such as Indonesia, Egypt, Iran and the United Arab Emirates.
Over the weekend, the group held its 17th summit in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The meeting culminated in a declaration angled at promoting peace and global cooperation.
But several items in the joint declaration appeared to be aimed at the US and its ally Israel, even though neither was identified by name. Under a section entitled “Strengthening Multilateralism and Reforming Global Governance”, for instance, the BRICS leaders called out the increasing use of tariffs in global trade.
This seemed directed at Trump, who has threatened US trading partners with a suite of tariffs to negotiate more favourable trade deals and exact policy concessions.
The US president has also called tariffs “the most beautiful word to me in the dictionary”, though many economists warn that the cost of such import taxes is often offset onto consumers.
Trump has also championed the use of other protectionist economic policies, under the banner of his “America First” agenda. But the BRICS leaders warned that these kinds of policies could backfire.
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