I sincerely hope this is overheated rhetoric from President Trump, because it strikes me as precisely the sort of attempted bullying from a weak position that has made it clear to the sovereign nations that they are better off not trying to work with or accommodate the USA on the basis of their economic interests:
US President Donald Trump has reiterated his threat to impose 100% tariffs against countries of the BRICS bloc, of which India is a part, if they attempt to replace the US dollar with an alternative currency. “The idea that the BRICS countries are trying to move away from the dollar, while we stand by and watch, is OVER,” Trump said in a post on his social media platform, Truth Social on Friday.
“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% tariffs, and should expect to say goodbye to selling into the wonderful US economy,” he stated.
Now, tariffs are to the advantage of the US economy due to its negative balance of trade, so this is certainly the right time to attempt to utilize them in whatever fashion is most advantageous. But risking having the USA off from most of the rest of the world in order to maintain the ability to keep issuing more and more debt is neither advantageous nor wise.
On the positive side, no matter how this plays out, it should nail a wooden stake right through the heart of the free trade charlatans.