New York: The US President-elect Donald Trump, who will take over office from President Joe Biden in January, has said that his administration will impose 100% tariff on BRICS countries including India if they seek to replace the US dollar in international transactions.
Trump was reacting to the discussion in October at BRICS meeting, participated by Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa and others, to boosting non-dollar transactions, according to NDTV.
Trump in an online post made it clear that his administration will not sit back watching the BRICS moving away from the dollar.
The Republican leader, who is returning to the White House after months of fierce campaigning, said that the US government would require commitment from BRICS that the grouping would neither create a new BRICS currency, nor support any other currency.
Trump warned that these countries will face 100% Tariffs, and have to say goodbye to selling into US Economy in the event of moving away from the US dollar.
Coming down heavily on BRICS countries, Trump said they would have to find another ‘sucker’ because there is no chance for BRICS to replace the US Dollar in international trade, adding that any country doing so ‘should wave goodbye to America’.
At a summit held in Russia's Kazan in October, the BRICS member countries including new entrants Egypt, Iran, and UAE discussed boosting non-dollar transactions alongside strengthening local currencies.
Members in a joint declaration called for ‘strengthening of correspondent banking networks within BRICS and enabling settlements in local currencies in line with BRICS Cross-Border Payments Initiative’.
However, India’s Foreign Minister S Jaishankar said in October that de-dollarisation is neither a part of India’s economic policy nor its political or strategic policies, according to NDTV.
He added that in the event of trade partners not taking dollars workarounds are to be looked at.