Jakarta. Indonesia recently agreed that the world had been witnessing the weaponization of trade, as the group’s heavyweights Brazil, China, and India denounced US tariffs.

BRICS is a group of emerging economies that originally encompassed Brazil, Russia, India, China, and eventually South Africa. It later brought Ethiopia, Egypt, Iran, the United Arab Emirates, and most recently, Indonesia into its fold. 

On Monday evening Jakarta time, the member’s leaders met virtually at the initiative of Brazilian President and group’s chair Lula da Silva -- a conference that came against the backdrop of Washington’s harsh tariffs. As the leaders took turns to deliver a trade-centric speech, President Prabowo Subianto called for the group to work closer, citing that stronger ties are pivotal amidst growing uncertainty. Prabowo said that he agreed with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping’s statement on upholding openness in the international economic and trade order. 

“We must uphold openness. We must, exactly, continue this close coordination and cooperation, in this present world of uncertainty,” Prabowo told the BRICS leaders.

“... of double and even triple standards, where international law is being daily ignored, where might makes right, where little countries with less power are being intimidated, threatened, bullied, where trade and finance become weapons,” Prabowo stated, alluding to the tariffs.

He added: "This is the time that BRICS must continue to evolve."

The online conference saw Xi, alongside Lula, throwing jabs at US President Donald Trump’s tariff hikes. For instance, Lula wants the BRICS members to trade more with one another as he alleged that “tariff blackmail” was being normalized, without directly citing the US. In an indirect comment about the US, Xi told the forum that “trade wars and tariff wars waged by some country severely disrupt the world economy and undermine international trade rules”. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi sent his chief diplomat S Jaishankar to the summit on his behalf. New Delhi also flagged serious concerns over the trade war.

“The world requires constructive and cooperative approaches to promote trade that is sustainable. Increasing barriers and complicating transactions will not help. Neither would the linking of trade measures to non-trade matters,” Jaishankar said.

The US’ import tax on BRICS members vary, although the three aforementioned founders are facing intense trade tensions with the Trump government. A whopping 50 percent tariff by the Trump administration is in effect for India. Trump has also slapped a 50 percent tariff on Brazil to defend his South American ally and the country's ex-president Jair Bolsonaro. Beijing has been in a trade war with Washington from the get-go, but just recently, Trump had threatened to impose 200 percent tariffs if Xi refused to export his country’s rare-earth magnets.

Indonesia, too, is already subject to a 19 percent tariff, lower than the 32 percent rate that US President Donald Trump had planned. The latest statistics showed that Indonesia still managed to keep its surplus with the US, running a positive balance worth $10.49 billion in overall trade between January and July. However, the 19 percent tariff had only kicked in on August 7. US-bound goods of Indonesian origin had been subject to a 10 percent baseline tariff before that date since early April.