There continues to be responses to Donald Trump’s recent social media post that he would impose a 100% tariff on all BRICS countries if they moved to create their own currency to rival the dollar.
During China’s Foreign Ministry press briefing on Dec. 3, RIA Novosti asked spokesman Lin Jian to comment on Trump’s threat. Lin did not respond to the accusation that the BRICS may create their own currency, but merely replied that China plans to continue working with the BRICS: “China stands ready to continue working with BRICS partners to deepen practical cooperation in various fields and make more contribution to the sustained and steady growth of the world economy.”
South Africa, on the other hand, was more defensive in its response. Chrispin Phiri, South Africa’s spokesman for the Minister of International Relations, posted on X: “Recent misreporting has led to the incorrect narrative that BRICS is planning to create a new currency. This is not the case. The discussions within BRICS focus on trading among member countries using their own national currencies.” He added: “BRICS is not discussing the creation of a common BRICS currency.”
Bloomberg, on the other hand, interviewed a number of financial advisors who admitted that any move by Trump in that direction may cause an even larger backlash against the dollar. “If Trump increases the pressure on BRICS, it may well accelerate a move away from the dollar,” said Rodrigo Catril, a strategist at National Australia Bank Ltd., reported TASS.
Ulrich Leuchtmann, the head of foreign-exchange research at Commerzbank AG in Frankfurt, noted that, in the wake of Trump’s comment, “anyone outside the U.S. who uses the dollar for transactions will sense this as a yoke that the U.S. is imposing on them.”
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov acknowledged on Dec. 2 that the dollar’s “erosion” was intensifying, and that “more and more countries are switching to the use of national currencies in their trade and foreign economic activities.”
