LAST MONTH Jamieson Greer, America’s top trade official, complained that Pix(巴西即时支付系统), a Brazilian instant-payments system, unfairly disadvantages American firms such as Visa and Mastercard. America proposed an extra 25% tariff on Brazil in response. Yet Brazilians seem unmoved(不为所动). “Pix is a Brazilian achievement and we will not give it up,” replied Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, Brazil’s president and a frequent critic of American power. Even his right-wing rival, Flávio Bolsonaro, said he was unwilling to forgo the system, instead suggesting a compromise in which Brazil would promise not to link Pix to cross-border payment infrastructure that rivals America’s.(甚至他的右翼对手弗拉维奥·博索纳罗也表示不愿放弃该系统，反而提出了一个折中方案：巴西承诺不将Pix与与美国竞争的跨境支付基础设施连接。)
上个月，美国贸易高官贾米森·格里尔抱怨称，巴西的即时支付系统Pix不公平地损害了Visa和Mastercard等美国公司的利益。作为回应，美国提议对巴西额外征收25%的关税。然而巴西人似乎不为所动。"Pix是巴西的成就，我们不会放弃，"巴西总统、经常批评美国力量的卢拉·达席尔瓦回应道。甚至他的右翼对手弗拉维奥·博索纳罗也表示不愿放弃该系统，反而提出了一个折中方案：巴西承诺不将Pix与与美国竞争的跨境支付基础设施连接。
The episode(事件；片段) captures the new geopolitical reality of global finance. As America pursues what Scott Bessent, the treasury secretary, recently described as “economic statecraft in the 21st century”, in which global access to the dollar and the American economy is “no longer unconditional”, and other countries try to respond in kind(以同样的方式；以牙还牙), the global financial system is splintering(分裂；碎片化) into regional and national systems. This is happening first in payments. It means a headache for Visa and Mastercard, the industry’s American duopoly(双寡头垄断).
这一事件反映了全球金融新的地缘政治现实。随着美国推行财政部长斯科特·贝森特最近所称的“21世纪经济方略”——全球获取美元和美国经济的机会“不再是无条件的”——而其他国家也试图以牙还牙，全球金融体系正在分裂为区域性和国家性体系。这首先发生在支付领域，对Visa和Mastercard这两家美国双寡头来说，这意味着头疼。
In January Aurore Lalucq, chair of the European Parliament’s economic- and monetary-affairs group, warned that a hostile(敌对的；不友好的) America could cut off access to(切断…的接入) payments infrastructure. “You won’t be able to say you weren’t warned,” she said, urging Europe to build its own alternatives. Weeks later a group of British bank bosses reportedly met in London to discuss building a British rival to Visa and Mastercard. “It’s important for all of us [to] have digital payment under our control(在我们的控制之下),” echoed Christine Lagarde, president of the European Central Bank (ECB(欧洲央行)), in an interview.
今年1月，欧洲议会经济与货币事务委员会主席奥萝尔·拉吕克警告说，一个充满敌意的美国可能会切断支付基础设施的接入。“到时候别说没警告过你们，”她说，敦促欧洲建立自己的替代方案。几周后，据报道一群英国银行高管在伦敦开会，讨论建立英国版的Visa和Mastercard竞争对手。“我们所有人都将数字支付掌握在自己手中很重要，”欧洲央行行长克里斯蒂娜·拉加德在接受采访时附和道。
