President-elect Donald Trump on Monday threatened to impose a 100 per cent tariff on the BRICS group of nations if they undermined the US dollar. “We require a commitment… that they will neither create a new BRICS currency nor support any other currency to replace the mighty US dollar, nor they will face 100 per cent tariffs,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social website. He referred to the grouping that includes Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa, and others.
The statement follows a BRICS summit held last month in Kazan, Russia, where the member countries discussed enhancing non-dollar transactions and strengthening local currencies.
The BRICS group has grown significantly since its inception in 2009 and now includes nations such as Iran, Egypt, and the United Arab Emirates. Collectively, the coalition accounts for a substantial minority of the world’s economic output.
At the Kazan summit in October 2024, Moscow secured a joint declaration encouraging the “strengthening of correspondent banking networks within BRICS and enabling settlements in local currencies in line with the BRICS Cross-Border Payments Initiative.”
However, at the close of the summit, Russian President Vladimir Putin
noted that little progress had been made on launching a potential competitor to the Belgium-based SWIFT financial messaging system.
“As for SWIFT and any alternatives, we have not created and are not creating any alternatives,” Putin told reporters after the summit.
He added, “As for a unified BRICS currency, we are not considering that question at the moment.”
Trump has vowed to pursue a protectionist agenda, threatening substantial tariffs on both neighbours and rivals.
If BRICS countries continue with their plans, Trump warned, they “should expect to say goodbye to selling into the wonderful US economy.
“They can go find another ‘sucker!’ There is no chance that the BRICS will replace the US dollar in international trade, and any country that tries should wave goodbye to America,” he wrote.
PUNCH Online reports that the spokesperson for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Eche Abu-Obe, confirmed that Nigeria had joined BRICS as a partner nation.
“Yes, it is true that Nigeria has joined BRICS as a partner,” he said.
Nigeria’s inclusion as a partner country aligns with previous statements made in November 2023 by Foreign Minister Yusuf Tuggar, who expressed the country’s intention to join BRICS as a full member within the next two years, leveraging its large economy and population.
AFP