One tariff too many

Since winning the presidential election, Donald Trump has indicated his plans to extensively employ tariffs to revive the United States’ economic power. The question is: will such threats work for the US when Washington’s extensive use of financial sanctions seems to be failing? On Dec 1, he threatened to punish the Brics (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) countries with a 100 per cent tariff and shut them out of the US markets if the group tried to undermine the dollar and create their own currency. Writing on a social media platform, Mr Trump said he would also act if the bloc supported another currency to replace the dollar. The Guardian wrote that fears of a global trade war had risen after Mr Trump threatened to impose tariffs on countries in the Brics group. If implemented, the paper said, a 100pc tariff would sharply drive up the cost of goods from Brics members, fueling US inflation and destabilising global trade flows.