With the rise of protectionist tendencies and Trump’s billowing trade war, the five leaders of the BRICS bloc, which represents over 40% of the world’s GDP, are committing themselves to an even closer degree of economic cooperation in a joint declaration following a meeting in Johannesburg for the annual summit. Trade between BRICS members grew by 30% in 2017, and, in the wake of Trump’s tariffs regime, is likely to increase as members seek to further diversify their trade portfolios as well as mitigate the damage done by Trump’s war to put or keep America on top of the world.
Press-TV reports:
The member states of BRICS, the association of five major emerging economies, have pledged to strengthen their economic cooperation as the US continues to beat the drum for trade war and unilateralism.
“We express concern at the spill-over effects of macro-economic policy measures in some major advanced economies,” the heads of the BRICS group — Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa – said in a joint statement on Thursday after meeting in Johannesburg for an annual summit.
They added that the multilateral trading system is facing unprecedented challenges, stressing the importance of an open world economy.
Addressing the 10th BRICS summit in South Africa on the second day of the talks, Chinese President Xi Jinping said, “We should stay committed to multilateralism”.
He further called on BRICS members states to deepen strategic partnership and open up the second “golden decade”.
The session, hosted by South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, was also attended by Brazilian President Michel Temer, Russian President Vladimir Putin, and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi
Putin also addressed the summit, saying, “BRICS has a unique place in the global economy — this is the largest market in the world, the joint GDP is 42 percent of the global GDP and it keeps growing”.
“In 2017, the trade with our BRICS countries has grown 30 percent, and we are aiming at further developing this kind of partnership,” he said.
US President Donald Trump has said he is ready to impose tariffs on all $500 billion (428 billion euros) of Chinese imports, complaining that China’s trade surplus with the US is due to unfair currency manipulation.
Trump has slapped levies on goods from China worth tens of billions of dollars, as well as tariffs on steel and aluminumm from the EU, Canada and Mexico.
The BRICS summit is taking place in Johannesburg between July 25 and 27. Heads of state or government from the five member states (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) are discussing areas of possible cooperation.
Numerous economic forums and summits have taken place this year which position themselves in staunch opposition to Trump’s trade war, not merely those of the EAEU, SCO, SPIEF, etc., but also several of Trump’s NATO and G7 allies, who have been speaking out against Trump’s brand of protectionism and unilateralism. Repeatedly, the way forward is the way of multilateralism, free trade, and a rules based system, as is agreed upon by most world leaders. But Trump is shaking things up and drawing the battle lines with his agenda of setting up sides. More frequently, however, he seems to end up pushing allies away and scoring agreements and deals between allies and non allies, and non allies amongst each other, sometimes even in ways which specifically and strategically aim to bypass America. The 2018 BRICS summit seems to show that the world will still keep turning round, with or without the approval or political/economic participation of America.
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