President Donald Trump said late Sunday that imports from countries aligning with “the Anti-American policies of BRICS” would face an additional ten percent tariff.
The BRICS bloc nations have been meeting in Rio de Janeiro over the weekend. Prior to Trump’s announcement of new tariffs, the group released a statement saying it had “serious concerns about the rise of unilateral tariffs and non-tariff measures.”
“Any Country aligning themselves with the Anti-American policies of BRICS, will be charged an ADDITIONAL 10% Tariff,” Trump said in a Truth Social post on Sunday night. “There will be no exceptions to this policy.”
The BRICS bloc—Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa—traces its origins to a Wall Street research report, not a diplomatic summit. In 2001, Goldman Sachs economist Jim O’Neill coined the term “BRIC” to describe a set of large, fast-growing economies—originally, Brazil, Russia, India, and China—that, he argued, would become increasingly important to global markets. The idea was pitched as an investment thesis, identifying countries with the potential to drive future global economic growth.