U.S. President Trump has leveled most of the highest and harshest tariffs—30% to 100%—and sanctions against the BRICS member nations. Trump may not comprehend why he is doing this, but his City of London-Wall Street controllers do: The BRICS process represents the emerging new world order of scientific economic development and the dignity of man. It is the alternative to the derivatives-laced collapsing Western financial system.
We look at the record of tariff attacks:
• Brazil: On July 30, Trump issued an executive order which, in addition to the 10% tariff that Trump had already applied against imported goods from Brazil, added an additional 40% tariff, bringing the tariff up to 50%, stating that it was because Brazil’s government “had politically motivated persecution, intimidation, harassment, censorship, and prosecution of former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro” and his supporters. On January 8, 2023, Bolsonaro supporters created insurrectionary conditions at the Presidential Palace and the National Congress. Bolsonaro is now being tried by Brazil’s Supreme Court. The U.S. has run a trade surplus with Brazil totaling $410 billion over the last 15 years, or $27 billion per year, according to Agencia Brasil. The Brazil tariff attack is not redressing trade deficits.
On August 5, China offered support to Brazil, authorizing nearly 200 Brazilian coffee companies to export coffee to China over the next five years, to partially offset the $1.65 billion of coffee beans that Brazil had been exporting to the United States in 2024, but which now face a 50% tariff.
• South Africa: On July 31, Trump announced a 30% tariff on South Africa to become effective starting August 7, the highest tariff rate against any country in all of Sub-Saharan Africa. Trump gave as his explanation his anger that South Africa had dared to take the moral lead in bringing lawsuit against Israel for its genocide against Palestinians, in the International Court of Justice in The Hague. Trump also alleged South Africa’s “unfair” treatment of whites. The tariffs were imposed, having little to do with matters of trade. South Africa’s official unemployment rate stood at 32.9% at the end of the first quarter of 2025. The South African Reserve Bank, its central bank, announced that the U.S. tariff could cause the loss of 100,000 jobs.
