Trump Threatens 100% Tariffs Against BRICS Nations

Trump Threatens 100% Tariffs Against BRICS Nations

Reuters
By Yuval Rosenberg and Michael Rainey
Monday, December 2, 2024

Happy Monday! On this date 70 years ago, the Senate overwhelmingly passed a resolution censuring Republican Sen. Joseph McCarthy of Wisconsin, who had risen to prominence in the early 1950s for his “Red Scare” hunt for Communists in the U.S. government. The resolution condemned McCarthy for acting “contrary to senatorial ethics,” bringing the Senate “into dishonor and disrepute” and obstructing Senate processes.

Here's what’s happening today.

Biden Invites Controversy by Pardoning His Son

We’ve made it to December, and it’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas — temperatures are dropping, parts of the country are blanketed by snow and the holiday shopping is in full swing. President Joe Biden delivered an early present to his son, Hunter, by signing a sweeping pardon sparing him from possible prison time on tax and gun-related convictions — and any other “offenses against the United States which he has committed or may have committed or taken part in” from 2014 through 2024.

That gift, a reversal of past pledges not to pardon Hunter, won’t come cheap. It has quickly sparked controversy and criticism, including from Democrats. It also raises questions about the elder Biden’s presidential legacy and echoes doubts about the U.S. justice system frequently voiced by President-elect Donald Trump and his most conspiracy-minded supporters. “President Biden’s decision put personal interest ahead of duty and further erodes Americans’ faith that the justice system is fair and equal for all,” Democratic Senator Michael Bennet of Colorado said Monday.

In doing so, it may well provide Trump cover for a host of ever more egregious actions, including plans to thoroughly shake up the Justice Department and pursue retribution against political opponents. “Does the Pardon given by Joe to Hunter include the J-6 Hostages, who have now been imprisoned for years?” Trump asked in a social media post, referring to rioters convicted for their actions during the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.

Congress Prepares Stopgap Spending Bill to Avoid December Shutdown

December will also bring a flurry of activity by the lame-duck Congress, which must pass a government funding bill by December 20 and still has to deal with a farm bill, the annual defense policy bill and a request by the Biden administration for $99 billion in emergency disaster relief. On the Senate side, Democrats want to confirm as many of Biden’s judicial nominations as possible.

Lawmakers have just a few weeks to juggle all that even as Republicans gear up for an ambitious first 100 days of President-elect Donald Trump’s second term.

Government funding: House Speaker Mike Johnson is looking to pass a three-month continuing resolution that would push the government funding fight into March. That approach would avoid a December vote on a full-year spending package that would likely be politically perilous for Johnson, given that it would be sure to raise the ire of hardline conservatives ahead of a January vote to decide who gets the speaker’s gavel.

At the same time, a three-month stopgap may complicate legislative plans for the incoming GOP administration and congressional majorities.

Republicans could look to pass much of their agenda via the budget reconciliation process, but they’ll be working with extremely narrow margins in the House to start, and any fight over spending cuts could still get messy.

“Johnson is expected to have just 218 Republicans on the first day of Congress because of the resignations of Matt Gaetz and Mike Waltz, whom Trump tapped to be national security adviser, which means he can lose only two Republican votes,” The Washington Post’s Leigh Ann Caldwell and Patrick Svitek report. “A vote on a spending bill that often divides Republicans could be problematic for Johnson.”

This month’s funding bill could also be the vehicle for an extension of the farm bill, additional disaster relief and Ukraine funding, though Johnson has made clear that he wants the incoming administration to be able to decide whether to move forward with any additional funding for Kyiv.

Punchbowl News reports that House Republican leaders plan to attach a one-year farm bill extension to the coming spending bill. “The straight one-year extension is a suboptimal result for the House and Senate, given that both chambers have their own agriculture policy proposals,” Jake Sherman and John Bresnahan write. “But clearing the legislation will give Trump and the Republicans the opportunity — and challenge — of crafting a farm bill when they have the Washington trifecta next year.”

The bottom line: The December 20 deadline is coming up, but a spending deal that avoids a shutdown is likely — and the details of that deal will shape how the first months of the new Trump administration play out. Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer said Monday that negotiations are on the right track. “Both sides are making progress negotiating on a bill that can pass the House and Senate with bipartisan support,” he said.

Trump Threatens 100% Tariffs Against BRICS Nations

Although he will not take office for another seven weeks, President-elect Donald Trump issued a threat to the so-called BRICS nations over the weekend, saying he will impose a 100% tariff on imports from those countries if they attempt to create a currency that serves as an alternative to the U.S. dollar. The threat arrived just a few days after Trump said he will impose a 25% tariff on goods imported from Mexico and Canada if those nations fail to act to stem the flow of immigrants and drugs across the U.S. border.

The BRICS — a 20-year-old designation for the five emerging market nations of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, now expanded to include Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates — have at times criticized the dominance of the U.S. dollar in international trade. Dollar supremacy gives the U.S. enormous influence over the global economy and lowers borrowing costs to help finance the country’s ever-growing debt.

Trump’s threat comes amid growing concerns among some U.S. elites that the BRICS plan to create their own currency and break out of the U.S. dollar system. “The idea that the BRICS Countries are trying to move away from the Dollar while we stand by and watch is OVER,” Trump said Saturday on his social media platform. “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 U.S. Dollar or, they will face 100% Tariffs, and should expect to say goodbye to selling into the wonderful U.S. Economy.”

A move that could backfire: Some trade experts questioned the need for Trump’s threat. South Africa has denied that the BRICS are planning to develop a new currency, and few see a viable threat in the offing either way. Economist Mark Weinstock of Pace University told CBS News that the dollar will likely remain the world’s dominant current for the foreseeable future. “Economically, it's not a major issue because the idea of the BRICS countries being able to put together an alternative as a reserve currency for the U.S. dollar is not plausible in the short or intermediate term,” he said.

Calling out the BRICS also highlights U.S. global domination — a fact that many nations in the world find unappealing, if not threatening. “It isn't a good look,” said Brad Setser, senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations. “My personal view is that trying to coerce countries into using the dollar (which they voluntarily do now, apart from those facing serious sanctions) is actually a long-run threat to the dollar's global role,” he added. “It makes the use of the dollar appear to be a favor to the U.S.”

Rodrigo Catril, a strategist at National Australia Bank, told Bloomberg that U.S. authorities should be careful. “The dollar remains dominant for several reasons: the USD is the most liquid currency in the world, trades freely, it is also the lending currency of the world,” he said. However, if “Trump increases the pressure on BRICS, it may well accelerate a move away from the dollar.”

Ulrich Leuchtmann, head of foreign exchange research at Commerzbank, also warned about the U.S. overplaying its hand. “From today, anyone outside the U.S. who uses the dollar for transactions will sense this as a yoke that the U.S. is imposing on them,” he told Bloomberg. “In the long term, this cannot be a stable state of affairs. Especially since this yoke is likely to be felt all the more oppressively the more selfishly U.S. policy acts in other areas.”

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