Just how bad is it getting with Joe Biden's weak leadership driving the U.S.'s friends and allies away?
Well, we know that China is racking up a string of diplomatic victories across the world, for one. We also know that the dollar is being abandoned as a choice unit of global trade and the world's reserve currency — in moves seen by China, Saudi Arabia, Iran, and Iraq, and others, which is evidence enough that there's a problem with full faith in the U.S. currency.
And with such moves to abandon the U.S. dollar as the world's reserve currency, the kinds of names seeking to bail out on the U.S. is starting to get a little startling.
According to EurAsia Media Network:
Mexico has expressed its interest in joining the BRICS group of emerging economies, which currently consists of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. The Mexican Foreign Minister, Marcelo Ebrard, said that Mexico shares the vision and values of the BRICS and hopes to deepen its cooperation with them in various fields, especially in medicine and trade.
Secondhand, at least, there's talk of Canada and Japan also joining the BRICS, though I have not found any true supporting evidence of it.
But the move by Mexico towards this arrangement is bad enough.
The rationale for it, as described by The Hindu, is summed up pretty well here:
South African Foreign Minister Naledi Pandor said worldwide interest in the BRICS group was "huge." In early March, she told television interviewers that she had 12 letters from interested countries on her desk.
"Saudi Arabia is one," she said. "United Arab Emirates, Egypt, Algeria, and Argentina," as well as Mexico and Nigeria. "Once we've shaped the criteria [for lending], we will then make the decision," she said, noting that the topic would be placed on the agenda for the upcoming August summit in South Africa.
The most recent economic developments in BRICS member states have little to do with the initial myths upon which the group was founded. Of the five members, only China has achieved sustained and extensive growth since then.
As China's gross domestic product grew from $6 trillion in 2010 to nearly $18 trillion in 2021, the economies in Brazil, South Africa, and Russia have stagnated. India's GDP grew from $1.7 trillion to $3.1 trillion but was outpaced by China's growth.
And if Mexico wants to join this club, they'd be getting in line and taking a number, what with this going on:
Just over two weeks after Russian state media announced that Iran and Argentina filed their official applications to join BRICS, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and Egypt began the process of making the same move, the alliance President Purnima Anand said on July 14.
There probably wouldn't be a more humiliating blow to the U.S. than to see its closest neighbors and at least one of its top trading partners saying goodbye to the U.S. and packing up for the BRICS.
The U.S., Mexico, and Canada form what's probably the most successful free trade treaty of all times, the North American Free Trade Alliance, which has brought prosperity to all three nations and served as a model for other growing trade alliances. For Mexico to pull out, and for nobody else trying to get in, would be a tremendous blow to the U.S., but Mexico has its reasons:
Mexico's move comes amid growing tensions with its northern neighbor, the United States, over issues such as immigration, border security, trade and human rights. The US has imposed tariffs on Mexican goods, threatened to cut off aid and demanded that Mexico do more to stop the flow of migrants from Central America. Mexico has also faced criticism from the US for its handling of the Covid-19 pandemic and its alleged interference in the Venezuelan crisis.
Mexico sees the BRICS as an alternative platform to diversify its foreign relations and increase its global influence.
Nobody likes to be lectured all the time, and in return for what? Obviously, the U.S. isn't offering economic growth opportunities the way it used to. The U.S. economy has gone stagnant at best under Joe Biden with all his inflationary policies, which batter the value of the dollar.
The BRICS states are bringing the growth.
The damping, smothering effect of Joe Biden's economy on other countries' economies is clearly evident in these moves toward the BRICS, which has prompted many nations to see trade and alliances elsewhere. With the BRICS already amounting to about 40% of the world's population and 20% of global trade, with relatively high growth compared to forecasts for the U.S., it's no wonder so many nations are flocking to this alternate bloc of countries, which is already beginning to form its own alternative currency.
We didn't see this much under President Trump. But since inflation became the story of Joe Biden's economy, we see a great scattering, and from nations that used to be some of our closest economic partners. One hopes Mexico is just using this move as economic leverage against the U.S. in order to get better treatment than it already has, but with a bad U.S. economy on Joe Biden's watch and the possibility of rigged elections to keep it in place, don't bet on it.
They're fleeing, maybe even Mexico. What a sad add-on effect of Joe Biden's mismanaged leadership and failed economy. If the next question is "Who Lost Mexico?," Biden had better be ready to answer. After all, if Joe Biden has made America as popular abroad as he says he has, why are these allies fleeing?
Image: Open Clipart, Creative Commons Zero 1.0 Public Domain License.