President Trump’s attacks on the group of emerging economies, which includes Brazil, Russia and China, have put one member — India — in an uncomfortable spot.
One of the many unexpected twists in President Trump’s use of tariff threats came early this month, when he blasted the BRICS, a group of 10 countries that’s named for five of them: Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.
“Any Country aligning themselves with the Anti-American policies of BRICS, will be charged an ADDITIONAL 10% tariff,” he wrote.
Most of the group’s members are closer to China than to the United States, and they have responded to Mr. Trump’s threats with defiance. Brazil’s president, for example, accused him of acting like an “emperor,” one of many barbs exchanged between the two leaders as trade tensions have intensified.
But India — the world’s most populous country, and the “I” that helped make BRICS a word in 2001 — stands apart. As Mr. Trump’s tariffs have reordered global trade, pushing some countries closer to Beijing, India is alone among the founding BRICS members in wanting to reduce China’s sway in world affairs.
For example, when it became clear that Mr. Trump was irked by talk about replacing the U.S. dollar as the world’s reserve currency, India’s foreign minister, S. Jaishankar, told a London conference that India had “absolutely no interest in undermining the dollar at all.” Mr. Trump has, at times, threatened to inflict tariffs of 100 percent on countries that seek to reduce the dollar’s dominant role, with particular ire aimed at BRICS, which has hosted discussions on the feasibility of a common currency at recent summits.
“Our relations with the U.S. are probably the best ever that they have been,” Mr. Jaishankar said at the conference in March.
