In a story that seems straight out of comic books… like how the Earth’s mightiest banded together against Loki in Avengers #1 (1963) or the Justice League of America came to being when Starro attacked in The Brave and the Bold #28 (1960)… the world’s Global South seems to be teaming together against an unlikely common foe—the tariff-spewing Donald Trump.
The irony of themes in American comics that vilified the big bad bully is not lost on the fact that the villain, in terms of global trade, is none other than the current US President.
Today, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in the midst of the latest Trump duties, went on X (formerly Twitter) to announce furthering a “Strategic Partnership including in trade, energy, tech, defence, health and more” with Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.
What is Trump’s beef with Brazil?
Trump loved his “buddy”, former far-right President Jair Bolsonaro. Currently, Bolsonaro is currently being prosecuted by the Brazilian High Court in connection with the January 2023 Brasília attacks—the country’s version of the Capitol attacks. Trump did not like this one bit (maybe it mirrored something closer to home). His latest sanctions are based on Bolsonaro’s “harsh” treatment of Brazil’s Judiciary.
The US President, apart from signing an executive order slapping 50 per cent tariffs on Brazilian goods (exempting a few sectors like Embraer airplanes and orange juice, because what is the US without business jets and OJ), imposed Magnitsky sanctions against Brazil’s Judge Alexandre de Moraes.
Moraes presided over the temporary suspension of Elon Musk’s X and US accounts, spreading misinformation about Brazil’s electoral system and the trial against Bolsonaro.
But it is this one statement by Modi that really cemented the stance of both nations: “A strong, people-centric partnership between Global South nations benefits everyone.”
Trump’s overreach into Brazil’s politics and sovereignty drove a wedge into US-Brazil relations. And now the fellow BRICS nation has found an ally in India.
Modi pushes back with teamups
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been on a world tour of sorts. Directly meeting with major nations. If the India-UK trade agreement gave the nation much-needed respite from American strongarming, the latest update about Brazil is more than it seems.
Currently, last fiscal (FY2024-2025), India exports to Brazil were $6.77 billion. India also imported $5.42 billion worth of Brazilian goods—that’s $1.35 billion for the nation in trade surplus. Sugar is Brazil’s biggest import to India ($1.36 billion), but the second biggest commodity is crude oil at $1.31 billion.
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In return India exports agro chemicals the most ($1.12 billion) the most. Processed petroleum products at $894 million come in second.
Suffice to say, there is so much more than can be done if these two emerging economies can clinch a free-trade deal with one another.
Killing the dollar
By January 2025, Brazil was already in talks with other BRICS nations to usurp the US dollar with any other currency for bilateral trade between them. Back then, Trump shouted from atop his Truth Social platform that “the idea that the BRICS countries are trying to move away from the Dollar, while we stand by and watch, is OVER.”
He even went on to say that the introduction of a new BRICS currency or backing any other currency “to replace the mighty US Dollar” would invite 100 per cent tariffs.
“They can go find another sucker nation. There is no chance that BRICS will replace the US Dollar in International Trade, or anywhere else, and any country that tries should say hello to tariffs, and goodbye to America!,” he posted back then.
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The latest wave of “punishment” tariffs on Brazil and India, the B and I in BRICS, seems to have levelled the playing field. The 100 per cent tariffs now don’t feel so far-fetched, and if Trump was going to slap sanctions and tariffs for lesser crimes, the Global South might as well kick the dollar out.
Back in January, Brazil’s proposal that BRICS member states should create a common currency for trade and investment among each other was not met favourably by New Delhi. But so much has changed. Trump essentially made a trade enemy out of India, and now Modi might say yes to the new currency idea.
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Back in 2023, a research paper (Saaida 2023) in the International Journal of Multidisciplinary Research and Development explored this very topic. The findings?
De-dollarisation would diminish “susceptibility to US-imposed economic sanctions and cause a potential reconfiguration of power within the international system.” It also reiterated the earlier research that “the establishment of a novel currency could also foster economic cooperation and integration among the BRICS nations, potentially fostering a novel political bloc that challenges the predominance of Western powers within global politics” (Stuenkel 2020).
Such a move away from the dollar could bring conflict with the US, the study then argued. This would later ring true when Donald Trump threatened BRICS to stand down from any move to de-dollarise.
But now emboldened by the collective bullying of Trump, these proud nations are banding together and forming a BRICS-led Global South bloc. Yet, their success would depend on the nations’ capacity to sync their efforts, policies, and address challenges from within—including the political fallout from creating a new currency to take on the dollar—something the West-facing European Union wanted to do but failed.
