The president-elect of the United States, Donald Trump, threatened to impose 100% tariffs on the countries of the BRICS group if they try to end the international dominance of the dollar.
“We ask that you commit (…) to never create a new BRICS currency, and to not support any other currency to replace the powerful US dollar or you will face 100% tariffs,” Trump wrote on his social network, Truth Social, in reference to this group of countries that includes Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa among others.
This statement comes after a BRICS summit in Kazan, Russia, where member countries of that group discussed how to boost transactions in currencies other than the US dollar and strengthen local currencies.
The BRICS group has expanded since it was created in 2009, and now includes countries such as Iran, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates.
In Kazan, in October, Moscow expressed that it was giving up for now the creation of a common currency of the bloc, considering that this idea was not yet “mature.”
“About a unified BRICS currency, we are not considering that issue now,” said host President Vladimir Putin.
He also said little progress had been made toward a banking information system to compete with the Belgium-based SWIFT, key to global financial transactions.
Trump has been advancing a protectionist agenda for his next term in office since January.
If the BRICS continue with their plans, “they should say goodbye to selling in the wonderful economy of the United States,” the president wrote this Saturday.
“They’ll have to find another fool! “There is no chance that the BRICS will replace the US dollar in international trade, and any country that tries to do so must say goodbye to the United States,” the president-elect added.
