Trump threatens 10% tariff for ‘Anti-American’ BRICS alignment

US President Donald Trump has slammed the eleven-member BRICS, that includes Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa, warning that an additional 10 per cent tariff will be imposed on any country that aligns with the bloc’s `anti-American’ policies. The joint declaration of BRICS leaders at the summit in Rio de Janeiro on Sunday raised concerns about the rise of unilateral tariff and non-tariff measures that distort trade and were inconsistent with WTO, but did not directly mention US tariffs. It also supported expansion of local currency financing and the bloc’s cross border payment initiative. “Any country aligning themselves with the Anti-American policies of BRICS, will be charged an additional 10% Tariff. There will be no exceptions to this policy,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform on Sunday. The BRICS, which now also includes new members Saudi Arabia, Egypt, United Arab Emirates, Ethiopia, Indonesia, and Iran, were earlier threatened by Trump in January this year with a 100 per cent tariff if they took any step to replace the US dollar. While the BRICS declaration for 2025 has no mention of a common BRICS currency, which would be hard to implement and is no longer being seriously pursued, it welcomed the BRICS’ New Development Bank’s expansion of local currency financing and supported a cross border payment initiative. “We task our ministers of finance and central bank governors, as appropriate, to continue the discussion on the BRICS Cross-Border Payments Initiative, and acknowledge the progress made by the BRICS Payment Task Force (BPTF) in identifying possible pathways to support the continuation of discussions on the potential for greater interoperability of BRICS payment systems,” the declaration noted. India had earlier specified that the BRICS nations’ work towards an alternative mechanism to do trade in national currencies was to protect against geopolitical vulnerabilities, and it was not the same as de dollarisation. Trump’s additional 10 per cent tariff threat on BRICS is seemingly over and above the country-specific tariffs Trump said he would propose in his letters to various countries with no trade deal with the US yet, in a “take it or leave it” offer. Trump’s 90-day pause on the reciprocal tariffs on various countries (26 per cent for India), that was to end on July 9, is set to be postponed to August