President-elect Donald Trump on Saturday warned BRICS countries against any move to replace the US dollar. He threatened the member countries of 100 per cent tariff imposition for such an attempt while seeking a commitment from the nine-member group that includes India, Russia, China, and Brazil.
This comes in the wake of the Russian and Chinese quest for the last few years seeking an alternative to the US Dollar. Considerably, formed in 2009, BRICS is the only major international group of which the United States is not a member.
Trump warned the BRICS countries through a social media platform Truth Social, which he owns. He said, “The idea that the BRICS Countries are trying to move away from the Dollar while we stand by and watch is OVER."
“We require a commitment from these Countries that they will neither create a new BRICS Currency, nor back any other Currency to replace the mighty U.S. Dollar or, they will face 100% Tariffs and should expect to say goodbye to selling into the wonderful U.S. Economy,” Trump warned.
Alternative currency pitched in BRICS Summit, 2023
Donald Trump further said, “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." It is worth mentioning here that at the 2023 summit in South Africa, BRICS countries committed to studying the feasibility of a new common currency. The proposal was made by Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula de Silva.
India against de-Dollarisation, favours situation based settlements
However, India has been against de-Dollarisation. It was categorically stated by External Affairs Minister Dr S Jaishankar when asked during an event. He said, “I think you have us confused for someone else because we have never actively targeted the dollar. That's not part of either our economic policy or our political or our strategic policy. Some others may have."
“What I will tell you is a natural concern there. We often have trade partners who do not have dollars to take. So, we now have to look at whether we forgo dealings with them or do we find some settlement which works otherwise. So, there's no, I can say malicious intent vis-a-vis the dollar in business. WE are trying to do our business,” he said.
“Sometimes you make it difficult in the use of dollars. We have some trade partners with whom trade in dollars becomes difficult because of your policies. We have to obviously look for workarounds. But for us, as we spoke about rebalancing, we spoke about multiple obviously all of this is also going to reflect on currencies and economic needs,” said the External Affairs Minister on October 1 this year.
(With inputs from agencies)
