President Donald Trump has threatened new tariffs on any nation supporting “anti-American” policies of the BRICS group of emerging economies, as he announced tariff letters would be sent out to scores of countries from Monday, ahead of a key deadline.
In a Truth Social post on Sunday, Trump said the US would impose an additional 10% tariff on “any country aligning themselves with the Anti-American policies of BRICS” with “no exceptions,” though it was not immediately clear which policies Trump was referring to.
The BRICS group, an acronym of founding members Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, has long stood as a disparate body of countries united by a shared view that global power-sharing should be redistributed to reflect current global economic realities for a “multipolar” as opposed to a West-led world order.
The group has recently expanded to include Egypt, Ethiopia, Indonesia, Iran and the United Arab Emirates as members, and has ten lower-level partner countries - including Belarus, Nigeria, Thailand and Vietnam. It’s not clear if Saudi Arabia has accepted an invitation to join the economic club.
Brazil is currently hosting a BRICS summit, with leaders releasing a joint declaration on Sunday voicing “serious concerns” about the “rise of unilateral tariff and non-tariff measures” – an apparent a veiled jibe at the Trump administration’s trade policy.
The US administration’s 90-day tariff pause is set to come to an end on Wednesday and Trump confirmed on Sunday night that letters will be sent out to dozens of countries from Monday.
Trump has suggested the letters would include duty rates at the current 10% baseline, or as extensive as 70%. Bessent said Sunday the United States would not impose 70% tariff rates on major trading partners.
