On July 6, as the BRICS summit was getting underway in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, U.S. President Donald Tump posted on his TruthSocial account: “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.” Reuters reported on July 8 that “a source familiar with the matter” explained that “the Trump administration will not immediately impose a new 10% tariff against members of the developing nation BRICS bloc, but will proceed if countries take so-called ‘anti-American’ policy actions.” No definition has been provided by the Trump administration, or the “source familiar with the matter,” as to what “anti-American” means.
On July 7 Financial Times headlined its article on the matter “BRICS Nations Hit Back at ‘Emperor’ Donald Trump over Tariff Threats.” They quoted Brazilian President Lula at his July 7 press conference at the end of the summit saying that Trump’s post was “very mistaken and very irresponsible…. It’s not right for a president of a country the size of the United States to threaten the world online…. The world has changed. We don’t want an emperor. We are sovereign countries.”
“The world needs to find a way so that our trade relationship does not need to go through the dollar,” Lula added. “Nobody has determined that the dollar is the currency standard.”
The FT quoted South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa criticizing those “seeking to have vengeance against those doing good in the world…. It is really disappointing that, when there is such a very positive collective manifestation, such as BRICS, there should be others who see it in a negative light and want to punish those who participate,” he told the public broadcaster SABC.
President Luis Arce of Bolivia told RT on the sidelines of the gathering: “There is a clear struggle between the old stagnant bloc of the U.S. and Europe on one side and the emerging bloc of BRICS countries on the other.”
