United States President Elect Donald Trump has served a soft warning to the BRICS Nations regarding the US currency. BRICS consists of India along with 9 other Nations including Brazil, China, Russia, South Africa etc and US is not a member of it. On November 30, Trump addressed the idea of the BRICS Nations, who are trying to create a common currency or alternative to the US dollar, and said that they should forget about such a plan. Further, in a statement, he said that 100% tariffs will be imposed and access to the US economy will be restricted for those Nations. He also added that if the nations move forward with the plan then they “should say goodbye to America” and “should find another sucker”
He took on social media and stated that
“The idea that the Brics countries are trying to move away from the dollar while we stand by and watch is over. We require a commitment from these 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. They can go find another sucker. There is no chance that the Brics will replace the US dollar in international trade and any country that tries should wave goodbye to America”
How strong is the US dollar?
His statement is by far the truth as most of the countries use the US dollar for global trade and are heavily dependent on the currency making it the most used currency in the Global business. However, several countries have complained about the dominance of the US dollar. Moreover, some countries like Russia and China have also explored alternatives to the US dollar. Furthermore, a photo of the supposedly BRICS currency was revealed during the recent summit in Kazan, where Russian president Vladimir Putin was holding a new and colorful bank note which received Global attention. It was later revealed that the note was not official but a mock-up of the BRICS bill by enthusiasts presented to the Russian leader. However, it has created concern for the US.
India’s Stance on New BRICS currency
Coming to India’s stance on the De-Dollarization, supporting it is not a preferred solution as it does not want to risk its lucrative trade deals with Western powers. India’s External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar also said that India’s trade in alternative currencies stems from practical challenges, not deliberate policy. He said in a statement that
“From time to time, people have raised that there should be a Brics currency but remember for countries to have a common currency, you need an enormous alignment of the very fundamentals of fiscal policies, the monetary policies, economical policies or even have to check the political policies,”.
Hence India cannot join the plan of supporting a new currency.
