BRICS member states recently drafted a statement for a meeting on July 7, 2025. The draft expressed “serious concern” over American unilateral tariffs and non-tariff measures.
China, in particular, has been vocal about trade, denouncing American trade restrictions and suddenly finding a surprising respect for free trade.
And there lies the problem: Globalization and Free Trade are the products of American Power after World War II.
The free exchange of goods and services, as well as the free flow of travel was an anomaly throughout history. Nations and empires traded only with their friends and vassals. They did not do it with their rivals, and BRICS – Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa, Egypt, Ethiopia, Indonesia, Iran, and the United Arab Emirates – are rivals to the America’s informal empire.
The irony here is that BRICS was established in opposition to the post-war, United States-led order. Well and good. Although I am not a BRICS-supporters, they are no different from other countries in pursuing their interests, and the same is true for the United States and its allies. Trade policy is an extension of national policy, and right now, these factions are doing what is in their own respective interests.
BRICS’ problem is that free trade is a universalist ideology, which asserts that if all countries should prioritize market forces above state interests, they would all be prosperous.
I seriously doubt any of the BRICS member states would agree to that, particularly China and Russia which both see the state as more paramount than markets or any universalist abstraction. America, under Trump, is pursuing the same.
BRICS can oppose America’s tariffs all it wants, but that the era of free trade is over, thanks in part to them. This will mean less trade, less economic growth, but it will mean more sovereignty.
These are just the tradeoffs of the new era. Free trade was the product of peace and the American Informal Empire. Mercantilism is the product of a multipolar world order./PN
