Donald Trump has been accused of inadvertently drawing BRICS nations — a loose grouping of some of the world's fastest-growing emerging economies — closer together by imposing higher tariffs on them than on other countries. 

Will BRICS boom under Trump's watch?

BY Nik Martin

China, the largest BRICS member, still faces the prospect of a 145% tariff if it can't cut a deal with Trump, while Brazil and India have been slapped with a 50% rate — half of India's penalty is for buying discounted Russian oil. South Africa was given a 30% levy, and even newer members like Egypt could see their tariffs go up, due to their participation in BRICS.

Trump has repeatedly warned during the first seven months of his second term of additional punitive measures against any nation aligning with what he calls "anti-American policies" — a pointed reference to the BRICS' growing challenge to US global dominance.

Former Indian trade official Ajay Srivastava thinks BRICS nations feel "little intimidation" from being singled out for additional penalties by Trump. He told DW that the tariffs "give BRICS a shared incentive to cut their reliance on the US, even if agendas differ."

Those additional tariffs have created a common grievance among BRICS members, who are now expanding bilateral trade agreements in national currencies to reduce dependence on the US dollar. BRICS central banks have also ramped up gold purchases, another signal of their desire to de-dollarize.

While Trump has declared "BRICS is dead," one critic has accused the US president of "strategic malpractice," arguing that the Republican has turned a loose coalition of countries with vastly different objectives into a more unified bloc.

In a recent op-ed for The Washington Post, Max Boot, a foreign policy analyst at the Council on Foreign Relations think tank, said Trump was "diminishing US power by perversely uniting America's friends with our enemies" — a reference to how Brazil, South Africa and India are aligning more closely with China and Russia.

The Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit in Tianjin wrapped earlier this week with a notable thaw in relations among BRICS heavyweights. Chinese President Xi Jinping, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and Russian President Vladimir Putin held their first trilateral talks in six years, marking a diplomatic breakthrough after years of tensions between India and China.

Modi’s visit — his first to China in seven years — was seen as a gesture of pragmatism, with all three leaders emphasizing the need for multipolar cooperation. The SCO platform allowed them to align on trade, energy and regional security, laying the groundwork for deeper BRICS coordination.

That momentum now shifts to Monday’s BRICS virtual summit, where Brazil’s President Lula will host leaders from the Global South to discuss joint retaliation against US tariffs and expanding trade in local currencies.

https://www.dw.com/en/will-brics-boom-under-trumps-watch/a-73750601

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