Trump’s Tariff Trap: How BRICS Nations Will Turn U.S. Sanctions into Their Weapon

In continuation of the United States’ unfair policies and economic pressure against other countries and nations, Donald Trump’s administration has announced that countries which continue to maintain economic and trade relations with Russia—particularly in the oil and gas sector—may face tariffs of up to 100% in their trade with the U.S. This marks yet another unilateral move by Washington in the framework of its ongoing trade war with the world and independent nations.


It should be remembered that during his election campaign, Trump had promised that, if elected, he could end the Russia–Ukraine war within 24 hours. Yet, months after that promise, not only have direct talks between Moscow, Washington, and Kyiv failed to yield results, but we are now witnessing the imposition of new policies, increased pressures, and secondary tariffs as high as 100%. This policy is another example of the U.S.’s domineering and coercive approach to weaken new alliances in the emerging international order—such as BRICS—targeting countries like India, China, Brazil, and South Africa, which are among Russia’s key economic partners and have played a significant role in its economic growth. These nations are now threatened with heavy tariffs in blatant violation of established international trade norms.

Trump, without providing any evidence or sound reasoning, appears desperate to create cracks within the BRICS alliance. By threatening commercial sanctions and imposing tariffs of up to 100%, he is pursuing part of his strategy to weaken cohesion among BRICS members, with the ultimate aim of isolating Russia and sowing doubt among its economic partners.


Experts note that one of the main goals of this political and economic stance—born from Trump’s inability to break BRICS unity—is to raise the economic cost of engaging with Russia. Through a maximum-pressure strategy, he seeks to make trade relations between BRICS, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, or other new alliances and Russia both costly and risky, in the hope that these countries will reconsider their economic ties with Moscow.


All of these actions fall within Washington’s broader effort to impose geo-economic isolation on Russia. This strategy can be viewed as part of a “hybrid war” against Moscow, simultaneously targeting its economic, diplomatic, and psychological spheres.


It is well understood that BRICS countries—with their combined energy resources, economic power, and population—pose a serious threat to U.S. global dominance. In reality, the more the U.S. and its allies attempt to sow doubt and instability in BRICS, the stronger these nations’ cooperation becomes. This is because Washington and the West seek not a balanced world but continued global hegemony. Nonetheless, it is worth noting that these secondary and new tariffs will inevitably harm the U.S. and its allies as well.

Through these hegemonic policies, Trump aims to weaken and minimize Russia’s mutual relations with other nations. Heavy tariffs and new sanctions reveal the U.S.’s inability to halt the momentum of the emerging multipolar order. In contrast, Russia engages with its partners based on mutual respect and shared interests, playing a constructive and indispensable role in BRICS in areas such as energy, technology, and the economy.

The history of unilateral, hegemonic sanctions against countries like Iran, Venezuela, Cuba, and Russia has shown that such nations develop new, more resilient structures to withstand Western and U.S. pressure.

These nations share the belief that economic cooperation among independent states and emerging global alliances equates to a free, multipolar world, while submission to Washington and the West means disregarding the economic sovereignty of nations.


For its part, the U.S. remains determined to counter the economic influence of the East. Deepening South–South cooperation and strengthening financial systems independent of the West represent major threats to Washington’s power. Relations built on mutual benefit and respect create a formidable barrier against Western objectives. For example, the proposed BRICS common currency or barter mechanisms among its members, along with other initiatives to reduce the dominance of the U.S. dollar, are seen as significant threats to American interests. Washington has thus sought to undermine these efforts through sanctions, unfair tariffs, and pressure on banks and financial institutions.

It can now be stated with certainty that America’s attempt to impose geo-economic isolation on Russia is a tool of the West’s trade war and maximum-pressure policy—a complex and hybrid weapon aimed at striking multiple facets of Russia to serve Western interests. On the one hand, this strategy targets Russia’s economy through sanctions and exclusion from the global financial system, including SWIFT; on the other, it deploys diplomatic tools to weaken the country and disrupt new alliances, thereby easing pressure on the Western-led world order.

These measures, which may be described as a form of “neo-colonialism,” are intended to weaken the economic foundations of independent nations. This is, in effect, a battlefield between the new global order and the traditional dominance and colonialism of the West. BRICS members and other new global alliances are working individually and collectively to resist this dominance, with China—thanks to its massive economy—acting as a driving force in this struggle.


It is precisely at this juncture that BRICS nations must, through unity and the adoption of new financial and economic tools, build a massive defensive wall against Western and U.S. economic and political domination.


*Translated by Ashraf Hemmati from the original Persian article written by Navid Daneshvar