Washington Takes on the BRICS
Well, it took long enough for the White House and the policy cliques to notice even the existence of the BRICS, the group of non–Western nations named for its first members.
For many years after Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa coalesced to form this loose but formidable association, in the last years of the last century, it was as if Washington were trying to will the group and all it represented out of existence.
And now look. The first thing the United States does as it acknowledges the BRICS, whose members currently number 11 and counting, is to announce that it will punish those nations belonging to it for … for belonging to it.
Earlier this month President Donald Trump — always the one to get this kind of nitwittery done — announced that he would impose blanket tariffs of 10 percent on all BRICS members — a threat he reiterated two weeks later, with the promise of more to come should the group’s members determine to exercise their sovereignty in the cause of common interests.
The Trumpster on this question said July 6:
“When I heard about this group from BRICS, six countries [sic], basically, I hit them very, very hard. And if they ever really form in a meaningful way, it will end very quickly. We can never let anyone play games with us.”
How’s that for the statecraft of a self-confident nation?
This display of juvenile impetulance coincided with the opening of the BRICS group’s 17th summit, hosted July 6–7 in Rio de Janeiro, as Brazil now holds the group’s rotating presidency.
The agenda included the usual sorts of things for these occasions: trade and investment, inclusive global governance, a global security architecture. This year’s summit also condemned the Israeli–American bombing runs against Iran three weeks prior to the session as “a violation of international law.”
Maybe Trump for once
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LewRockwell.com is a libertarian website that publishes articles, essays, and blog posts advocating for minimal government, free markets, and individual liberty. The site was founded by Lew Rockwell, an American libertarian political commentator, activist, and former congressional staffer. The website often features content that is critical of mainstream politics, state intervention, and foreign policy, among other topics. It is a platform frequently used to disseminate Austrian economics, a school of economic thought that is popular among some libertarians.
