On the 8th (local time), according to Reuters, President Trump said at a cabinet meeting at the White House. He said “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”
And he called BRICS “an organization designed to undermine the United States and the US dollar as the world’s reserve currency” and threatened that “we will not let that happen.”
In response, Brazilian President Lula fired back, saying, “We will not accept any complaints (from the US) about the BRICS summit,” adding, “We can never agree with President Trump’s imposition of tariffs on BRICS countries.
“People should know the meaning of the word sovereignty,” he said, emphasizing that “he (Trump) should know that the world has changed and we are a sovereign nation.”
South African President Ramaphosa also said it was “very disappointing that when there is a very positive move by a coalition like the BRICS, there are those who see it as negative and seem to want to punish the participating countries,” adding that “might does not make right,” Bloomberg reported.
Founded in 2009 as a group of emerging economies including Russia, China, Brazil, and India, the BRICS has seen rapid growth, with its membership recently expanding to 11 countries (Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), and Indonesia). It now accounts for 27% of the world’s gross domestic product (GDP).
“We are gravely concerned about unilateral measures related to trade and finance, in particular tariff and non-tariff barriers, as they distort trade and are contrary to the norms of the World Trade Organization,” BRICS said in a joint statement at the summit, which took place July 6-7 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
