BRICS including India to face 10% tariff for trying to ‘destroy’ US dollars

 

US President Donald Trump has said countries in the BRICS group like India will have to pay a 10 per cent tax on goods they sell to the US, according to Indian media.

He claimed BRICS was formed to hurt the United States and weaken the US dollar, which he called “the king.” Trump said, “If India is in BRICS, then they’ll have to pay. BRICS was created to damage our economy and remove the dollar as the global standard. If they want to go down that path, I can respond too. So, any country in BRICS will face a 10 per cent tariff.”

Trump went on to say that he believes BRICS is no longer strong. “I said it a year ago — BRICS has mostly fallen apart, but a few countries are still holding on,” he told reporters.

He also said he doesn’t see BRICS as a serious threat but believes the group is trying to weaken the US dollar so another country can replace it as the global standard. “We’re not going to let that happen,” he said.

He also criticized President Joe Biden, saying the US needs a smart leader to protect the dollar’s role in the world. He warned that with “a foolish president like the last one,” the US could lose the dollar’s global status.

“If we have strong leadership, we’ll never lose the dollar’s position,” Trump said. “But if we have weak leadership, we could lose it and that would change everything for our country. The dollar is king, and we’re going to keep it that way.”

Trump has announced a new 50% import tax on copper, adding to earlier tariffs he had imposed on steel and aluminium. He also warned that tariffs on medicines and pharmaceutical products imported into the US could rise by as much as 200% within a year.

Trump made it clear that he would not delay the August 1 deadline for these higher tariffs to kick in across many countries.

This is an important development for India, as the US is India’s biggest market for pharmaceutical exports and also a major buyer of Indian copper and related goods.

Speaking during a cabinet meeting on Tuesday, Trump said, “Today we’re doing copper. I think we’ll put the tariff at 50%.”