BRICS trade ministers to meet in India, adopt cooperation template
October 12, 2016, 4:21 am

BRICS member China is the world’s top trading nation [Xinhua]

An important framework to enhance intra-BRICS economic cooperation will be brought into force during the trade ministers meet, according to an Indian government official quoted by Press Trust of India.

The five ministers will also select a template for the BRICS – single window cooperation which will help boost trade in services.

The ministers will adopt the framework for cooperation in the fields of small and medium enterprises, services sector, intellectual property rights (IPR), trade promotion, non-tariff measures resolution and adoption of uniform standards.

A BRICS Trade Fair is also being held in the Indian capital New Delhi from 12-14 October that will focus on start-ups and young entrepreneurs from the five countries.

The BRICS has emerged as one of the most significant trading bloc in recent years.

The five countries are home to 42 per cent of the world’s population.

The share of BRICS countries in global GDP has reached 30 percent, Russian Minister of Economic Development Alexei Ulyukayev said at last year’s annual meet of BRICS Trade Ministers in Moscow.

Trade between the BRICS countries in 2014 was up by more than 70 per cent to $291 billion.

“Our countries accounted for over 17 percent of global trade, 13 percent of the global services market and 45 percent of the world’s agricultural output [in 2014],” Ulyukayev noted.

The combined GDP of the five BRICS countries surged from $10 trillion in 2001 to $32.5 trillion in 2014.

Meanwhile, earlier this weekend the steering committee of the IMF met in Washington to bolster efforts to revive flagging global trade.

The International Monetary and Financial Committee said uncertainty and downside risks to the global recovery were elevated, and that it was increasingly threatened by protectionist policies and stalled reforms.

TBP