ADDITIONAL 10% UNITED STATES’ TARIFF HIKE FOR THE BRICS NATIONS: TRUMP’S CONFRONTATIONAL TRADE POLICIES VERSUS SHARICAH
Navigating the global economy while avoiding direct confrontation with the United States of America (USA) on her confrontational/unilateral trade policies is the pressing challenge confronting the BRICS nations. The declaration of additional wave of 10 per cent United States’ tariff hike by President Donald Trump for the BRICS countries and any country aligning with the BRICS’ policies without any exceptions is quite a threat to the economics of the Global North and Global South respectively. This work examines the consequential effects of President Donald Trump’s confrontational/unilateral trade policies against the BRICS nations and their partner countries without any exceptions, on the global trade. The paper adopted comparative, historical and library research methods. Also, useful internet sources were used. Findings show that the rise of unilateral tariff measures as in President Donald Trump’s confrontational trade policies against the BRICS bloc and their partner countries is indeed a pressing global issue. It recommends that the U.S.A should uphold the founding principles behind the establishment of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) that legislates economic cooperation among the developing economies “Global South” especially through trade. It concludes that the divine objective of creation of the universe by Allah is for the generality of mankind to principally understand one another in all spheres of life and not for confrontational or retaliatory purposes. As such, institutionalisation of the Islamic principle of cooperative global order – “Qur’an 49:13” in the global trade policies would indeed mark an end to confrontational trade policies and bring about the balanced approach to the global financing for economic prosperity.
Keywords: Tariff Hike; United States; BRICS Nations; Trump’s Confrontational Trade Policies; Sharicah
