Trump threatens customs-assisted group with tariffs-why?

Trump's focus on Brics falls at a time when the group seems to grow. The original members - Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa - have expanded their group by Egypt, Ethiopia, Indonesia, Iran and the United Arab Emirates in recent years. Other countries are already waiting for an invitation to membership.

The influence of Brics on the US dollar

In his statements against the group, Trump identified a specific area that he sees as a threat: the currency. "Brics was founded to harm us, Brics was founded to weaken and replace our dollar," said Trump the cabinet meeting on Tuesday.

It is not the first time that it expresses something like that. In November, when he was elected president, Trump threatened that he would " Zölle from 100 %"on Brics-Länder to create no “new Brics currency” or to support another currency to replace the mighty US dollar.

The highly tapped idea of ​​a “Brics currency” was by Brazil's President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva proposed in 2023, but never was in the focus of the group, since it is considered so complex that it is practically impossible to implement.

The geopolitical situation within Brics

The Brics countries are interested in expanding the trade in their national currencies instead of being dependent on the US dollar. A successful approach could reduce the dollar addiction of a significant part of the global economy. It is estimated that the BRICS members make up more than a third of the global GDP based on the purchasing power parity.

in a , which was published during their summit on Sunday, supported the Brics leaders on continuous discussions about an “initiative for cross-border payments” between the member states. analysts argue that such a system, potentially an alternative to Swift interbanking network could be used by using the currencies or digital equivalents of the BRICS countries.

The circumvention of Swift and a dollar-based trading system has obvious advantages for certain Brics countries such as Russia and Iran, since they could avoid such severe western sanctions. Other countries also see an advantage not to be dependent on the US dollar for the trade.

Brics in response to US dominance

The economic alliance of the founding members of Brazil, Russia, India and China was launched in 2009 after the American financial crisis damaged the United States' finance image and gave new trust in their role in the global economy. The group, which invited South Africa in 2010, is now an even more more colorful Geopolitscher Mischmash than then, consisting of authoritarian governments and lively democracies - which complicates the finding of a consensus in a variety of topics.

Nevertheless, the Brics countries are combined by the simple view that the global balance of power is shifted to the benefit of the United States and its European allies, which excludes emerging economies. In order to counteract this mismatch, they founded their own development bank in 2015 and support the efforts of Brazil and India to play a larger role in the UN Security Council.

The internal divergence and upcoming challenges

The members of the group have denied that Brics is “anti-Westlich”. But while Russia and China have experienced friction with the West in the past ten years, both countries have tried to form the group into a more targeted instrument to combat US dominance. However, not all members agree; India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi Warned At a BRICS summit last year, careful to ensure that the organization does not win the image of an attempt to replace global institutions.

Although this year's meeting missed the top leaders of several countries, including China, the VAE and Egypt, this indicates that the group is not at the top of their current agendas. Nevertheless, Trump's global customs policy was a gathering point for Brics. During their summit in Rio, the leaders published a joint explanation in which they expressed “serious concerns” about the “increase in one-sided customs and non-customs measures”- an obvious swipe at the trade policy of the Trump administration.

The members also found common ground on non-economic points that stand in the way of the US course, even if they carefully expressed them. Her last explanation referred to a 12-day conflict between Israel and the Member State of Iran by convicting recently carried out military attacks on Iran and expressing “serious concerns” about “conscious attacks on civil infrastructure” and “peaceful” nuclear systems. However, they did not specifically mention Israel or the United States, which were also part of the same attacks.