President Trump’s latest round of tariffs will hit key Global South powers particularly hard. Both India and Brazil are facing 50% duties that have little to do with trade imbalances. For India, the tariffs are retaliation for its Russian oil imports, while for Brazil the levies come in response to the prosecution of Trump’s ally, former President Jair Bolsonaro. Trump has also threatened additional tariffs on India and Brazil due to their participation in BRICS, which the president accuses of being “anti-American.”
These moves underscore how the Trump administration’s tariff policy threatens to do long-term damage to U.S. geopolitical interests while doing little to advance an America First agenda.
Neither India nor Brazil appears willing to accede to Trump’s demands, setting up a dynamic that could strengthen BRICS’ cohesion, push India closer to Russia and China, and undercut U.S. influence in the Indo-Pacific. In short, Trump’s attempt to coerce India and Brazil could accelerate the very geopolitical realignment Washington fears.
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