New York, Jul 19: US President Donald Trump has claimed that his threat of a 10 per cent tariff on members of the BRICS scared them off, and almost no one showed up for a meeting the next day. But the BRICS summit continued.

Trump issued the threat on July 6 night, but the next day, the leaders of the 11 BRICS countries met for the second day of their summit with full attendance.

Calling BRICS “this little group” of "six countries basically”, he said on Friday, “They wanted to try and take over the dollar, the dominance of the dollar, and the standard of the dollar”.

“And I said, anybody that's in the BRICS consortium of nations, we're going to tariff you 10 per cent”, he said. “And they had a meeting the following day, and almost nobody showed up. Seriously”.

Trump asserted they felt like, “Leave me alone. We didn't want to [be tariffed]”. “They didn't want to be tariffed. There, it's amazing”, he added.

Although Trump has repeatedly talked about a BRICS currency, the idea has been shot down by India, a founding member of the group and its second-largest economy.

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar has declared there was no policy to replace the dollar as the reserve currency because it “is the source of international economic stability”.

Trump said, “If they really form [a BRICS currency] in a meaningful way, it will end very quickly”. He added, ”They won't be gone very long. I don't think they'll even do it. They're virtually afraid to [even] meet”.

Trump posted on July 6, “Any Country aligning themselves with the Anti-American policies of BRICS, will be charged an ADDITIONAL 10% Tariff”.

But the BRICS leaders continued their summit for the second day in Rio de Janeiro.

Trump, who is given to making exaggerations and speaking in hyperboles, made the claims at the signing of the GENIUS Act at the White House.

The law passed by Congress with the support of legislators from both parties governs digital currency, setting the standards and consumer safeguards for a category of digital currencies called stablecoins.

The act’s acronym stands for “Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for US Stablecoins”, and, among things, it would require financial institutions issuing stablecoin cryptocurrency to back them with solid assets like the dollar.

White House Crypto Czar David Sacks said, “For every digital dollar in a crypto wallet, there'll be a traditional dollar in a US bank account, which will create trillions of dollars in demand for US Treasuries [bonds]”.

“Consumers, vendors, and people all over the world will then be able to use those stable coins for ultra-low cost and secure the dollar's status as the world's reserve currency for generations to come”, Trump said.

He said that having the dollar as the global reserve currency is important for the US.

“If we lost that, that would be like losing a world war. We can never let anyone play games with us”, he said.

“And that's why, when I heard about this group from BRICS, six countries, basically, I hit them very, very hard.”, he said.

Trump said that a tariff deal was ready to be announced, but did not say with which country.

(IANS)

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