THE key question facing nations of the Global Majority is whether they can form a unity of approach to the tariff war being waged by US President Donald Trump.

It should not be assumed that current structures, such as Brics+ (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa plus Egypt, Ethiopia, Indonesia, Iran and the United Arab Emirates) or the Shanghai Co-operation Organisation will be strong enough to forge the necessary unity to defeat the bullying of the Trump regime.

In the past I have fallen into the trap of hoping for too much from these new attempts at multilateralism. But maybe there is nothing wrong in hoping that something new will emerge as the US retreats into a form of isolationism?

Imposing trade tariffs on most of the rest of the world is an example of the US attempting to assert its will by economic means. Although it more than hints that if it doesn’t get its way the US is prepared to use its military might to achieve its aims.

But the move towards “America First” is more than just sloganising. It is about using as much of its own and the rest of the world's resources to benefit the US. This is clearly an isolationist route to take.

Trade between nations is generally considered a good thing.

Although it has never really taken place on equal terms. The stronger countries have always been able to dictate the terms of that trade largely because of their economic and military strength.

But the main principle that every country is different and that trade should take place on the basis of maximising the benefit of what each nation can bring to the negotiating table is a largely accepted principle.

Some countries can produce things that other countries can’t and vice versa leaving room for a deal to be struck to the benefit of each economy.

After World War II, the US worked largely on the principle that economic dominance over the rest of the world was vital and that this was all part of the Cold War against the Soviet Union.

Once the Soviet Union was betrayed and forced to dissolve, the US no longer felt under immediate threat and only saw the necessity to entrench its power so that it could tackle the only other emerging dominant economic and political force on the planet — China.

For the US, communism was still a threat to the expansion of capitalism as were the — far from communist — Russians.

Rather than sitting around waiting for whatever might emerge from the US regime, Russian foreign minister in 1996 Yevgeni Primakov developed a strategic three-way pivot between Russia, India and China and, effectively, birthed the new multilateral world.

It was a direct alternative to the US hegemony of the post-Cold War world.
Primakov perceptively argued that a Russia-India-China troika could act as a focal point for other nations fed up with US bullying.

Other nations soon rallied to the call and, eventually, Brics was formed.

The US was never going to let this happen quietly. To cut a long story short the US currently imposes sanctions on around a third of all nations on the planet — disproportionately bullying low income nations.

The message is clear: “If you fail to remain in line with US economic and military interests you will be punished.”

The fact is trade tariffs are a political as well as economic sanction being imposed by the US.

Trump has even gone so far as to instruct the Brazilian judiciary to drop legal proceedings against the country’s far-right former president Jair Bolsonaro for being involved in a brazen attempt to overthrow the election that he lost to leftwinger Luiz Incio “Lula” da Silva in 2022.

The deception that this was all about fairness in the trade relations between the US and the rest of the world was revealed in all its dishonesty with barely a word of criticism from the mainstream media.

It was now being demonstrated that the tariffs were yet another tool of political power being deployed by the US empire of chaos.

Of course this is not just a Trump phenomenon.

The US, under the Republicans and Democrats alike, has used economic and trade sanctions against Cuba to keep the Caribbean nation under manners for more than 60 years.

Russia and China would have expected retribution from the US. But something like this is new territory for India’s far right Hindu nationalist coalition government led by Narendra Modi. Thus far, Modi has felt more inclined to play as many sides as possible in the geopolitical rivalries.

But the 50 per cent tariffs now levied against India — partly for having the audacity to exercise enough sovereignty to buy oil from Russia — may just change India’s foreign policy approach.

Unfortunately for India, by now its importance in the emerging new multilateral world has been overtaken by Iran. Geographical positioning does, of course, have a lot to do with it — Iran being perfectly situated as a trade route to the West.

However, India’s cosying up to the Trump regime has only served to undermine its position.

Iran has, effectively, become the new member of the Primakov Triangle at a time when it is under pressure from the US over its nuclear programme.

No amount of reassurances from Tehran that its nuclear programme is peaceful and solely for domestic use appears enough to satisfy the US.

Even a fatwa on the matter from Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei is insufficient. But why would it be when the real reason is for the US to attack all of the founders of Brics as they have done?

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, the leader of the S in Brics, was deliberately humiliated in the Oval Office by Trump over clearly bogus claims that white people in South Africa were the victims of some sort of genocide.

No Brics nation came to the concrete aid of Iran when Israel and the US launched their recent unprovoked attacks. In fact there was no reason for them to do so as the Brics is a trade, not a military, alliance.

It remains to be seen whether this lack of assistance continues when the US and Israel launch what seems an inevitable future attack on Iran.

It also remains to be seen whether a collective will to exercise sovereignty and break away from the US orbit can be sustained by the Global Majority.

Can they deliver on their aim of trading with each other in their own currencies rather than the dollar? Can they resist going back cap in hand to the US begging for whatever trade tariff Trump sees fit to give them — as the European Union has?

I think only time will tell. But what is clear is that we are living through a pivotal moment in world history. How this falls out should not simply be left for political leaders to determine on their own.

The worldwide movement for socialism must insist on people-centred solutions to the economic crisis being created by Trump and his followers.

Roger McKenzie is international editor of the Morning Star.