President Donald Trump attempted to renew his threat against a bloc of nine nations in case they tried to undermine the US dollar.
He threatened economic retaliation if these “seemingly hostile countries” moved away from the dollar, Mr Trump said on Truth Social in a statement nearly identical to one he posted on 30 November.
The US president wrote on the social media platform: “The idea that the Brics countries are trying to move away from the dollar, while we stand by and watch, is over.”
Brics alliance consists of Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran and the United Arab Emirates. Turkey, Azerbaijan and Malaysia have applied to become members and several other countries have expressed interest in joining.
Mr Trump, who has already kicked off the imposition of tariffs on Canada and Mexico, demanded a firm commitment from Brics nations to cease any attempts to create a new currency or back existing currencies in competition with the US dollar.
Failure to comply, he warned, would result in severe consequences, including the imposition of 100 per cent tariffs on goods imported from these countries and the end of their access to the US market.
He wrote: “We are going to require a commitment from these seemingly hostile countries that they will neither create a new Brics currency, nor back any other currency to replace the mighty US dollar or, they will face 100 per cent tariffs, and should expect to say goodbye to selling into the wonderful US economy.”
He continued: “They can go find another sucker Nation. There is no chance that Brics will replace the US dollar in international trade, or anywhere else, and any country that tries should say hello to tariffs, and goodbye to America!”
While the US dollar remains the dominant currency in global trade and has withstood previous challenges to its supremacy, members of the alliance and other developing nations argue they are increasingly frustrated with America’s control over the global financial system.
At a summit of Brics nations in October, Russian president Vladimir Putin accused the US of “weaponising” the dollar and described it as a “big mistake”.
“It’s not us who refuse to use the dollar,” Mr Putin said at the time. “But if they don’t let us work, what can we do? We are forced to search for alternatives.”
Brics, established in 2009, is the only major international bloc that does not include the US.
Earlier in his inaugural speech, Mr Trump stated that his administration would establish an “External Revenue Service to collect all tariffs, duties and revenues” to “tariff and tax foreign countries to enrich our citizens”.
In December, Reserve Bank of India (RBI) governor Shaktikanta Das told reporters at a press briefing that “so far as India was concerned, there are no steps that India has taken which specifically wants to de-dollarise”.
