Trump says BRICS members, including India, will have to pay 10 pc tariff
US President Donald Trump says BRICS was set up to ‘degenerate’ the US dollar and replace it as the standard world currency
US President Donald Trump on Tuesday (July 8) sharpened his attack on BRICS, stating that the grouping was established to “hurt” America and “degenerate” the dollar and warned that member countries, including India, would face a 10 per cent tariff if they continue with the bloc.
‘BRICS set up to degenerate dollar’
"...They will certainly have to pay 10 per cent if they are in BRICS because BRICS was set up to hurt us, to degenerate our dollar...The dollar is king. We are going to keep it that way. If people want to challenge it, they can. But they will have to pay a big price. I don't think any of them are going to pay that price," he said while talking to reporters at the sixth Cabinet meeting at the White House.
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‘BRICS members getting 10 pc charge’
“And that's okay if they want to play that game, but I can play that game too. So anybody that's in BRICS is getting a 10 per cent charge,” Trump said, adding that this will be happening “pretty soon”.
“Well, if they're a member of BRICS, they're gonna have to pay a 10 per cent tariff. Just for that one thing,” Trump reiterated.
Trump claimed that BRICS "largely broke up" but “there are a couple that hang around".
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Fight for dollar's supremacy
Trump said even though he doesn’t consider BRICS a serious threat, it seeks to replace the dollar with another currency as the standard, and he would not let that happen.
“BRICS is not, in my opinion, a serious threat. But what they're trying to do is destroy the dollar so that another country can take over and be the standard, and we're not going to lose the standard at any time,” he said.
"If you have a smart president, you will never lose the standard. If we lost the world standard dollar, that would be like losing a war, a major world war; we would not be the same country any longer. We're not going to let that happen...dollar is king, we're going to keep it that way,” he said.
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‘Big price’
“If people want to challenge it, they can, but they're going to have to pay a big price, and I don't think any of them are willing to pay that price,” Trump said.
Leaders of the BRICS nations -- Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, United Arab Emirates, Ethiopia, Indonesia, and Iran -- met in Brazil for the 17th BRICS Summit on July 6-7.
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Trump on Sunday threatened to impose an additional 10 per cent tariff on countries aligning themselves with the “anti-American” policies of the BRICS grouping.