BRICS and the US: a Non-conventional Take

By Yaroslav Lissovolik

In 2025-2026 the rhetoric with respect to BRICS coming from President Trump has been increasingly negative, with the new US administration contemplating the possibility of applying trade restrictions to BRICS economies that opt to pursue de-dollarization and a common BRICS currency. The response from the BRICS leaders has been to underscore that the bloc is neither “anti-US”, nor “anti-Western”, with the main focus of the BRICS+ platform being the advancement of South-South economic cooperation.

What is more, a look at the economic priorities of the current American administration and the development tracks of the BRICS bloc suggests that greater South-South cooperation could dovetail the attainment of US economic goals across a wide range of issues, including those pertaining to re-industrialization. In particular, the BRICS may play a role for the United States in addressing such issues as the rebalancing of trade and migration flows that are likely to be increasingly absorbed by the BRICS+ economies through greater South-South economic cooperation.

Perhaps the most controversial of all issues in terms of US statements with respect to BRICS has been the theme of the bloc’s common currency. The hardening of the rhetoric from Trump with regard to such plans in 2025 has essentially been already met with statements from Russia, South Africa, India and other members of the bloc about the absence of intentions to launch a common BRICS currency, with India explicitly stating that there were no de-dollarization plans (arguably the absence of such plans has been clearly communicated well before 2025). China has never even officially spoke in favor of the R5 project. Furthermore, in February 2026, Russia’s officials declared the readiness of using the US dollar in transactions with the United States, with “Russia never voluntarily abandoning the US dollar”.

At the same time, there may be scope for the BRICS and the US to work on issues of international financial stability, with discussions centering on how the Global South and the rest of the global economy could deliver their fair share of the prospective coordinated stimulus during global economic downturns (rather than the onus falling on the United States and other advanced economies). Another challenge is the drastic reduction in financial assistance to the least developed economies in the past several years – according to the OECD, Official Development Assistance (ODA) from Development Assistance Committee (DAC) member countries amounted to USD 174.3 billion in 2025, a 23.1% decrease over 2024 – this is “the largest annual contraction on record and a second consecutive year of decline”.

A further rebalancing of quotas in the IMF and the World Bank would serve to shift more of the burden of financing contributions of global institutions towards emerging markets represented by BRICS+ economies, particularly if the ODA and other contributions coming from the developed economies continue to decline drastically.

More generally, across all of the main trajectories of economic development – from migration to trade and investment – BRICS role in boosting South-South economic cooperation can substantially reduce the pressures experienced in these areas by developed economies such as the US. In particular, the US and BRICS could work with the International Organization for Migration (IOM) to support the development of infrastructure (including in the financial sector) to allow for more of international migration to be accounted for by South-South flows. At this stage the economies of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) are among the regions of the Global South that serve as the focal points of attracting migrant labor flows from the parts of the developing world with growing populations such as South Asia and Africa. Within the GCC region, Qatar exhibits the highest proportion of migrants that represent 76.7 per cent of the population, followed by the United Arab Emirates (74%) and Kuwait (67.3%), while Bahrain (52.3%), Jordan (45.7%), Oman (43.2%) and Saudi Arabia (40.3%) also demonstrate high shares of international migrants within their total populations.

Similarly, in the trade sphere greater South-South trade flows advanced by the BRICS+ platform could attenuate the pressure experienced by the US in the form of persistently high trade deficits with some of the BRICS economies such as China. In fact, this pattern has already been observed in 2025 as the China-led pick-up in South-South trade was accompanied by a decline in the US trade deficit with China. Similarly, in the first quarter of 2026 Brazil recorded a growth in exports to China of 21.7% and a rising trade surplus (nearly 50% YoY growth) along with a decline in exports to the US of nearly 19% YoY. The BRICS economies and the US could also explore potential trade liberalization measures, particularly in such areas as the services sector, where there may be scope for greater US exports accompanied by the much-needed technological advances for the developing economies.

In the end, the negative rhetoric coming from President Trump with respect to BRICS may be in part due to the lack of information in the West on BRICS as a bloc and the sluggishness on the part of BRICS as well as the developed world in bridging this “information gap”. Greater prioritization of economic cooperation and particularly trade liberalization in BRICS development would serve to reduce the scope for misconceptions about BRICS motives and its positioning vis-à-vis the developed economies. There may of course be valid reasons why within the US domestic economic debate the expediency of containing imports and migration flows or the growing role of South-South trade and investment may be viewed differently across the various parts of the American political spectrum.

Nonetheless, from the broader global perspective, the advancement by BRICS of South-South trade, investment and migration could significantly lower the global imbalances in these segments of the world economy, relieve the corresponding pressures experienced by advanced economies such as the United States and create greater scope for building a more sustainable pattern of North-South economic cooperation.

Yaroslav Lissovolik is the Founder of BRICS+ Analytics.