President-elect Donald Trump on Saturday threatened to impose 100% tariffs on a bloc of nine countries if they act in a way that weakens the U.S. dollar.
His threat was aimed at BRICS countries, which include Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran and the United Arab Emirates.
Turkey, Azerbaijan and Malaysia have applied to become members and several other countries have expressed interest in joining the alliance.
While the U.S. dollar is by far the most widely used currency in global affairs and has survived past challenges to its pre-eminence, alliance members and other developing countries say they are fed up with the dominance American on the global financial system.
Mr. Trump, in a post on Truth Social, said: “We demand that these countries commit not to create a new BRICS currency or support another currency to replace the powerful US dollar, or they will face 100% tariffs and should expect to say goodbye to selling in the wonderful American economy.”
At a BRICS summit in October, Russian President Vladimir Putin accused the United States of “weaponizing” the dollar and described it as a “grave mistake.”
“It is not us who refuse to use the dollar,” Mr. Putin argued at that time. “But if they don’t let us work, what can we do? We are forced to look for alternatives. »
Russia has notably pushed for the creation of a new payment system that would offer an alternative to the global SWIFT banking messaging network and allow Moscow to avoid Western sanctions and trade with its partners.
Mr Trump said there was “zero chance” of BRICS replacing the US dollar in global trade and that any country that tried to make that happen “should say goodbye to America” .
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