Trump threatens 100% tariff on the BRIC bloc of nations if they act to undermine US dollar
Summary
Trump has threatened 100% tariffs on BRICS nations (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa, and others) if they pursue de-dollarization efforts, including creating a new currency to challenge the U.S. dollar’s dominance in global trade.
Trump warned these nations could lose access to the U.S. economy.
BRICS members, frustrated by U.S. financial dominance, have explored alternatives, with Russia advocating for a new payment system to bypass sanctions.
Analysts say the dollar’s global reserve status remains secure in the near term despite these challenges.
https://apnews.com/article/trump-dollar-dominance-brics-treasury-8572985f41754fe008b98f38180945c3Open linkView original on lemmy.world
34 replies
What has always made the dollar so attractive is the perception of US stability and predictability; the idea that the USA really did want to facilitate truly global trade.
Trump weaponizing tariffs and otherwise acting like a lunatic (and that the electorate put him in twice) is really shattering to the fundamental rationale for using the USD as the defacto global currency.
Working as intended.
All while providing an "obvious" foil for the educationally challenged to pretend that he's trying his best in good faith, when the destruction of US hegemony is entirely his handler's goal.
Yep, this will go down in the history books as an incredible feat of non-confrontative "silent" warfare by Putin against the entire West. If there are still history books in the future.
The money and resources Putin spent on Trump have yielded a far far better return than it could have had he spent it on his own military.
It's like he just learned the word 'tariff' and needs to include it in every conversation now to show it off.
"This place is so palatial. I had to walk around the entire regalia!"
It's magic, it can automagically solve any unrelated problem. He claimed that tariffs would lower child care costs (of course the ramble doesn't specify how it would lead to lower child care costs because I definitely can't see it leading to countrywide tuition-free public kindergartens like in many European countries)
The only reason BRICS has legs is because of the last Trump presidency. His transactional approach to relations makes working with the US less appealing.
Translation: "If you guys try to move away from the US Dollar, I'm going to tax the shit out of Americans. That'll show you."
Mickey Mousenomics courtesy of a "very stable genius".
Donny's last trade war lost U.S. steel. What well his tariffs loss look like for Americans?
Wait until he realises tariffs can go above 100%
President Evil: One Million Percent!
Euro overtaking the dollar as reserve currency in 3, 2, 1...
Thing is: Much of the volume of USD-denominated trade is habit and inertia, it's a convenient unit of transfer and thus banks keep reserves of it to make transactions with. It took the US blocking a payment from a German customer to a Danish tobacco retailer for banks to switch Euro<->Kroner transactions to not go via USD (Those were Cuban cigars) as standard operating procedure for banks very much involves "don't fix it if it's not broken".
Thus: The more you stir the pot, the more people want to get away from your complications. On top of being a convenient unit of transfer the Euro is also backed by a similarly-sized economy as the dollar and on top of that much more price stable against that economy: The Fed is perfectly willing to inflate the dollar to influence e.g. employment, while the ECB is committed to price stability, rather telling member states to devalue internally if that's what's necessary the prices shall stay the same.
do you have a source on the cigar story?
Misremembered a bit, it was a Danish trader wanting to pay a German trader for a larger shipment. Probably not the best source at all but you'll be able to pin it down more by the date.
I'm sure I found better sources some years ago it almost seems like both google and bing completely obliterated their news index from way back when.
thanks
Yeah? Well I'm threatening a billion percent tariff on Mars unless I get a pony!
The orange nutjob found his new favourite threat
Well he's only got two sticks and no carrots. At least he's choosing a stick that pokes Americans in the eye (tariffs) rather than the other stick (CIA backed coups).
Glhf
...is it time to invest in gold or what?
I have never heard this bloc being called "BRIC". Until recently the members were Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa. BRICS. Why did they lose the S?
At least prev govt had a nicer inflation export strategy!
What would they move to? Fuckin bitcoin lol.
Euro, Rupees, Coffee-Dollar. So many possibilities and since the US Dollar isnt tied to Gold anymore any other currency is as valid for global trade. Heck let's call it credits.
I would've thought the Euro?
Gold, as is tradition of countries we invade.
If the world traded oil rather than burned it, we would be in a much better position.
Euro.
RMB probably. Russia can't convince people to take the ruble.
The RMB has problems with how it is regulated to be a viable reserve and trade currency for most countries.
Currently the big contenders are the EUR, the GBP and the JPY if I recall it correctly.
https://investingnews.com/brics-currency/
They're VERY big on breaking the West's hegemony..
Due to their grass-roots pragmatism ( China's "Belt & Road" initiative, being an example of how to surrepticiously-own countries )
they may well succeed, sufficiently..
_ /\ _
https://www.visualcapitalist.com/ranked-the-worlds-top-reserve-currencies-in-2024/
It's not just "the dollar", right now the ranking of reserve currencies is:
I'll check back again when the RMB reaches like 10%.
Also, your article is not talking about the RMB as a world reserve, it says BRICS is aiming to create a new currency backed by gold, so essentially a return to the gold standard. One could argue for or against that, maybe it's better than the dollar if you ask me, but IDK. But adopting that as a national currency would break Chinese manufacturing, as they rely on being able to devalue the RMB to keep doing what they are doing.
Point is, fuck the USD, but it's not so simple that we can switch to the RMB and be done with it.
Caps