US vs BRICS: How Trump targeted all founding members of the bloc with tariffs

Indian Express

6 days ago

US President Donald Trump has doubled down on his tariffs, especially on India and China, with secondary sanctions over the two countries buying Russian oil. Trump on Wednesday imposed an 'additional 25 per cent ad valorem duty' on India over the previous 25 per cent reciprocal tariffs, effectively bringing the tariffs on Indian exports to 50 per cent.
President Trump on Wednesday suggested that India could face more tariffs and added that other countries, including China, which are buying Russian oil could be hit with similar penalties.
Ever since Trump announced his 'Liberation Day Tariffs' on April 2, the US President has used the threat of tariffs to get favarouble trade deals with countries around the world. President Trump has also used the threat of tariffs on BRICS nations, even calling the bloc anti-American and warning them against attempts to de-dollarise.
While the BRICS bloc currently has ten member countries, it derives its name from Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. Out of these, Brazil, Russia, India, and China were the founding members of BRIC in 2009 and in 2010, South Africa joined the bloc, making it BRICS.
All five countries have been hit with tariffs recently by the US over alleged trade deficits. But many analysts have argued that the tariffs are more political than economic.
China was one of the first countries to be hit by Trump's tariffs, which reached a peak of 145 percent in April this year. Since then, the tariffs on China have been reduced to 30 per cent, with Trump suggesting that more could follow.
India was also among the countries singled out by the Trump administration, with the US President repeatedly complaining about how unfair the bilateral trade was. Trump imposed 25 per cent reciprocal tariffs on India after the country failed to negotiate a trade deal with the US. Additionally, an 'additional 25 per cent ad valorem duty' was imposed on India in the form of secondary sanctions for continuing to purchase Russian oil.
Russia was one of the few countries that were exempted from the Liberation Day Tariff in April. The White House had justified the move, citing the existing US sanctions that 'preclude any meaningful trade.' Following the invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Russia has been under tough US sanctions and the bilateral trade in 2024 stood at around $3.5bn. However, while there are no additional direct tariffs on Russia, the country is still expected to face the heat in the form of secondary sanctions on countries still buying Russian oil, including China, India and Turkey.
Brazil is one of the countries that have been hit with the highest trade tariffs by the Trump administration. Last week the US imposed a 50 per cent tariff on imports from Brazil. Latin America's biggest economy was slapped with a standard 10 per cent tariff on Liberation Day. But last week it shot up to 50 per cent, in a move many saw as political, as the US doesn't have a trade deficit with Brazil. Despite this, Brazil was hit with a 50 per cent tariff for alleged 'politically motivated persecution, intimidation, harassment, censorship and prosecution' of former President Jair Bolsonaro, who is currently under house arrest. The US has been angered by Justice Alexandre de Moraes, the judge who ordered Bolsonaro's arrest, who last year had also temporarily shut down Elon Musk-owned X in the country.
South Africa was hit with a tariff of 30 per cent by the Trump administration. Bilateral ties between the US and South Africa strained under the Trump administration, with the US president accusing the Cyril Ramaphosa government of discriminating against its white minority. The US even welcomed several white African refugees who claimed to be fleeing a 'white genocide' to the country earlier this year.