The Tarriff Hype.
- Thread starter petros
- Start date
The weeklong Will for Peace 2026 exercises, which started on Saturday, are being led by China in Simon’s Town, where the Indian Ocean meets the Atlantic Ocean. They will include drills on rescue and maritime strike operations and technical exchanges, China’s Ministry of National Defence said.
The BRICS acronym is derived from the initial letters of the founding member countries – Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa – with South Africa serving as the current chair. India (targeted by Trumps Tarriff’s over oil from Russia) and Brazil (in the US “Spere of the Donroe Doctrine”), however, opted out of the drills.
China and Iran sent destroyers, Russia and the United Arab Emirates sent corvettes and South Africa deployed a mid-sized frigate.
Chinese officials leading the opening ceremony on Saturday south of Cape Town said Brazil, Egypt, Indonesia and Ethiopia were joining the drills as observers.
The weeklong Will for Peace 2026 exercises, which started on Saturday, are being led by China in Simon’s Town, where the Indian Ocean meets the Atlantic Ocean.
They will include drills on rescue and maritime strike operations and technical exchanges, China’s Ministry of National Defence said. The ongoing exercises come amid heightened geopolitical tensions. They started just three days after the United States seized a Venezuela-linked Russian oil tanker in the North Atlantic, saying it had violated Western sanctions.
The seizure followed a US military operation that abducted President Nicolas Maduro from the capital, Caracas, with his wife, Cilia Flores and a pledge from US President Donald Trump to “run” Venezuela and exploit its vast oil reserves.
The Trump administration has also threatened military action against countries such as Cuba, Colombia and Iran and the semiautonomous Danish territory Greenland. Trump has accused some BRICS members of pursuing “anti-American” policies like he’s accused pretty much everyone else, so take it for what it is.
While Washington’s relations continue to be sour with China and Russia, Trump has attacked Iran and imposed punishing tariffs on India, which it has accused of funding Russia’s war against Ukraine by buying Russian oil.
After taking office in January 2025, Trump had threatened all the BRICS members with an additional 10 percent tariff.
BRICS wargames: Why they matter, why India opted out — Al Jazeera
South Africa is hosting the BRICS exercises, but two founding members are not participating amid tensions with the US.
BRICS essentially is not a military alliance but an intergovernmental partnership of developing nations focused on economic cooperation and reliable trade aimed at breaking an overreliance on the West.
U.S. President Donald Trump visited a Ford factory in Dearborn, Mich., Tuesday and dismissed the relevance of the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement, saying the U.S. doesn’t need the trade deal and that “Canada would love it.” (?)
“The problem is we don’t need their product. We don’t need cars made in Canada, we don’t need cars made in Mexico, we want to make them here,” Trump said to reporters.
Trump said CUSMA has no “real advantage” for the U.S and is “irrelevant” to him. The trade deal comes up for mandatory review this year with formal talks set in mid-January ahead of a July deadline.
apple.news
These are probably things Trump isn’t interested in anyway though. The upcoming CUSMA review presents the three partners with a set of options in July: renew the pact for another 16 years, withdraw from it entirely or opt for neither.
Trumps trade stooge Jamieson Greer has further suggested the administration is weighing the possibly of dismantling the trilateral pact in favour of negotiating separate bilateral agreements with Canada and Mexico.
In 2020, then U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer described the Canada-U.S.-Mexico free trade agreement (CUSMA) as the “new gold standard against which all future trade agreements will be judged,” after the deal he helped put together was passed in the Senate.
“The problem is we don’t need their product. We don’t need cars made in Canada, we don’t need cars made in Mexico, we want to make them here,” Trump said to reporters.
Trump said CUSMA has no “real advantage” for the U.S and is “irrelevant” to him. The trade deal comes up for mandatory review this year with formal talks set in mid-January ahead of a July deadline.
‘We don’t need cars made in Canada’: Trump calls CUSMA ‘irrelevant’ and takes aim at Canada — CTV News
U.S. President Donald Trump visited a Ford factory in Dearborn, Mich., Tuesday and dismissed the relevance of the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement, saying the U.S. doesn’t need the trade deal and that “Canada would love it.”
Trumps trade stooge Jamieson Greer has further suggested the administration is weighing the possibly of dismantling the trilateral pact in favour of negotiating separate bilateral agreements with Canada and Mexico.
In 2020, then U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer described the Canada-U.S.-Mexico free trade agreement (CUSMA) as the “new gold standard against which all future trade agreements will be judged,” after the deal he helped put together was passed in the Senate.
Easy to understand Trump's logic about wanting to build cars at home. Only thing he is not taking into account is the Auto Pact signed in 1965 which basically gave American manufacturer's an advantage killing any hope of a Canadian owned industry. A little too much "that was then, this is now" for me.
…& America might want to look at which country is its biggest export market for the automotive industry…& what that’s worth in USD. That too can change much like Canadian booze preferences, just not as quickly.
Anyway, Donald Trump appeared to blank on a vow he previously made to Americans during an interview with The New York Times. In audio from the sit-down last week that has since gone viral, Times reporter Katie Rogers asked Trump when Americans could expect to receive the $2,000 checks he had promised, funded “based off of your tariff revenues.”
Trump responded: “I did do that? When did I do that?”
“Well, I mean…,” Rogers began.
Trump Interview Takes Very Awkward Turn: 'When Did I Do That?' — HuffPost
The president awkwardly appeared to lose track of a promise during a sit-down with The New York Times.
If those checks are going to make the mail rest assured it will be right before the midterms .…& America might want to look at which country is its biggest export market for the automotive industry…& what that’s worth in USD. That too can change much like Canadian booze preferences, just not as quickly.
Anyway, Donald Trump appeared to blank on a vow he previously made to Americans during an interview with The New York Times. In audio from the sit-down last week that has since gone viral, Times reporter Katie Rogers asked Trump when Americans could expect to receive the $2,000 checks he had promised, funded “based off of your tariff revenues.”
View attachment 32750
Trump responded: “I did do that? When did I do that?”
“Well, I mean…,” Rogers began.
{Earlier in his second term, Trump similarly floated the idea of sending Americans $5,000 dividend checks using public funds saved through spending cuts and job reductions overseen by billionaire Elon Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). Those checks are still not in the mail…but that’s potentially a different story}
Trump Interview Takes Very Awkward Turn: 'When Did I Do That?' — HuffPost
The president awkwardly appeared to lose track of a promise during a sit-down with The New York Times.
During the course of his second term in office, Trump has often threatened and imposed tariffs on other countries over their ties with U.S. adversaries and over trade policies that he has described as unfair to Washington. Tariffs are paid by U.S. importers of goods from those countries.
Trump's trade policy is under legal pressure as the U.S. Supreme Court is considering striking down a broad swathe of Trump's existing tariffs.
"Effective immediately, any Country doing business with the Islamic Republic of Iran will pay a Tariff of 25% on any and all business being done with the United States of America," Trump said in a post on Truth Social.
Iran exported products to 147 trading partners in 2022, according to World Bank's most recent data. "This Order is final and conclusive," Trump said without providing any further detail.
(147/195 Countries=0.754 or 3/4’s of the world)
There was no official documentation from the White House of the policy on its website, nor information about the legal authority Trump would use to impose the tariffs, or whether they would be aimed at all of Iran's trading partners. The White House did not respond to a request for comment.
apple.news
Trump's trade policy is under legal pressure as the U.S. Supreme Court is considering striking down a broad swathe of Trump's existing tariffs.
"Effective immediately, any Country doing business with the Islamic Republic of Iran will pay a Tariff of 25% on any and all business being done with the United States of America," Trump said in a post on Truth Social.
Iran exported products to 147 trading partners in 2022, according to World Bank's most recent data. "This Order is final and conclusive," Trump said without providing any further detail.
(147/195 Countries=0.754 or 3/4’s of the world)
There was no official documentation from the White House of the policy on its website, nor information about the legal authority Trump would use to impose the tariffs, or whether they would be aimed at all of Iran's trading partners. The White House did not respond to a request for comment.
Trump says nations doing business with Iran face 25% tariff on US trade — Reuters
President Donald Trump said on Monday any country that does business with Iran will face a tariff rate of 25% on any trade with the U.S., as Washington weighs a response to the situation in Iran which is seeing its biggest anti-government protests in years.
What do Americans import from Iran in the first place? Rugs and sesame seed treats?During the course of his second term in office, Trump has often threatened and imposed tariffs on other countries over their ties with U.S. adversaries and over trade policies that he has described as unfair to Washington. Tariffs are paid by U.S. importers of goods from those countries.
Trump's trade policy is under legal pressure as the U.S. Supreme Court is considering striking down a broad swathe of Trump's existing tariffs.
"Effective immediately, any Country doing business with the Islamic Republic of Iran will pay a Tariff of 25% on any and all business being done with the United States of America," Trump said in a post on Truth Social.
Iran exported products to 147 trading partners in 2022, according to World Bank's most recent data. "This Order is final and conclusive," Trump said without providing any further detail.
(147/195 Countries=0.754 or 3/4’s of the world)
There was no official documentation from the White House of the policy on its website, nor information about the legal authority Trump would use to impose the tariffs, or whether they would be aimed at all of Iran's trading partners. The White House did not respond to a request for comment.
View attachment 32759
Trump says nations doing business with Iran face 25% tariff on US trade — Reuters
President Donald Trump said on Monday any country that does business with Iran will face a tariff rate of 25% on any trade with the U.S., as Washington weighs a response to the situation in Iran which is seeing its biggest anti-government protests in years.
Who set up shops that import through
That set up stores that import Iranian goods through India or Iraq?
Who are Iran's trading partners facing 25% US tariffs? — Reuters
U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday said any country that does business with Iran will face a 25% tariff on trade with the U.S., as Tehran grapples with its most substantial anti-government protests in years.