Well known economist Richard Wolff believes the United States has “shot itself in the foot” while “trying to act like a tough guy” by doubling tariffs on India. Speaking to Russia TV host and journalist Rick Sanchez, the professor emeritus at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, felt that Donald Trump’s move has made BRICS the front-runner to be a counter economic bloc to the west.
Sanchez posted the interaction on social media platform X (formerly Twitter), writing, “Trump tried to bully India into ditching Russia — India is not budging, and why should they? Why should the US dictate who you can buy oil from? Watch the legendary economist Richard Wolff eviscerate the U.S. economic policy.”
Asking Wolff for his thoughts of US President Donald Trump‘s trade policy, Sanchez said a previous interaction with an Indian diplomat made him think the world has changed, and this is a moment that “historians will write about.”
If you threathen India like Trump, you are playing with a different adversary’
The professor agreed, linking the US’ “tough man” stance on tariffs to the much criticised behaviour of US Ambassador to Turkey and Special Envoy to Syria Tom Barrack, who lectured Lebanese journalists “to act civilised”.
“Ambassador Barack in Lebanon… that the US talking to a small Middle Eastern country. That’s not India. India is now according to the United Nations by population, the largest country on Earth having outgrown China, which used to have that position,” he noted.
Wolff added that Donald Trump’s threats against India for trading with “historical” friend Russia, will backfire. “If you do what the US or Trump is doing with these threats against India — who has a long, historical relationship with Russia, going back to the days of the Soviet Union — you are playing with a very different adversary,” he warned.
‘If you shut off US from India, it will export to BRICS’
“If you shut off the US to India, by big tariffs, India will have to find other places to sell its exports — like Russia found another place to sell its energy. India will sell its exports — no longer to the US — but to the rest of the BRICS,” he added.
Founded in June 2009, BRICS is an international, inter-governmental forum of emerging economies, that started off an informal diplomatic bloc, for member countries to conduct annual summits and coordinate multilateral policies. Its founding members are the namesake — Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa; but the grouping now comprises 11 members and 14 partner countries.
Wolff criticised the US policies for “developing BRICS to be an ever larger, more integrated, and successful, economic alternative to the West”.
“We are watching, as you (Sanchez) put it, a historic moment. But, for those with some humour, it will be the spectacle of the US acting like it’s the world’s tough guy, as what it actually does, is shoot itself in the foot,” Wolff opined.
‘Russia, China, India — nothing brings adversaries together than a common enemy’
On Prime Minister Narendra Modi‘s upcoming visit to China for the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Summit in Tianjin from August 31-September 1, Wolff acknowledged that Russia, China and India’s relationships have been “uneasy”, but noted, “Nothing brings adversaries together than having a common enemy.”
“What those three countries are doing is reacting to the economic warfare imposed on them by the decisions of the US. I mean, declaring an economic war is what Trump did. A tariff against everybody. And now you can come and beg for me to make it a little higher, a little lower,” he added.
Wolff said, “The US is no longer the hegemonic power it once was. It is a country using whatever it can to survive and throwing away its allies, throwing away much of its history. It’s the behavior of a desperate society.”
He further noted that BRICS countries now comprise 35 per cent of global output, compared to 28 per cent by G7 nations. “Russia, China, India, and the BRICS are now the rich, core of the world economy,” he added.