In the dark shadow of global economic downturn, the trade and economic ministers of BRICS nations including India today collectively call for need to resist protectionist tendencies and to promote international trade as an engine of economic growth and development.

“Adversity of financial crisis is being faced by all. There is a need to work together to overcome from this problem,” Commerce and Industry Minister, Anand Sharma said while interacting with media after the meeting of BRICS trade Ministers in the national capital.

Sharma kicked off The BRICS Business Forum 2012, declaring that the BRICS nations had shown tremendous resilience in the face of the global economic turmoil and “Now is the time to focus on setting new intra-BRICS trade and investment targets to ensure easy flow of capital, knowledge and information for the good of our people and that of the world.”

The Business Forum meeting, organized jointly by the three apex chambers, FICCI, ASSOCHAM and CII, assumes importance as the BRICS nations have established themselves as drivers of growth that helped the global economy emerge from the shadows of crisis.

The Ministers of BRICS — Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa — directed their officials to explore ways and means for enhancing and furthering intra-BRICS cooperation especially in the areas of customs cooperation, exchange of experiences in trade facilitation, investment promotion SME (small and Medium Enterprise) cooperation and trade data collection and harmonisation, e-commerce cooperation and intellectual property rights cooperation.

The BRICS trade Ministers also agreed that officials should work together to ensure that BRICS members enhance their trade, including of higher value added manufactured products, to support industrialisation and employment in their countries.

At present, intra-regional trade of BRICS stood at USD 230 billion. The BRICS members reviewed the global economic situation and noted with concern the continuing difficulty faced by many countries and underscored the need for greater policy coordination to ensure a stable and thriving global economy.

India’s Union Minister of Commerce Industry and Textiles Mr Anand Sharma said, “There is a large untapped growth potential of intra-BRICS trade and investments which we are presently focusing on for exploitation. BRICS Development Banks are in the advance stages of concluding Agreements on Extending Credit Facility in Local Currencies, and Multilateral Letter of Credit Confirmation Facility Agreement to facilitate further consolidation of trade and investment ties. Such intra-BRICS initiatives will not only contribute to enhanced intra-BRICS trade and investments but would also facilitate our economic growth in difficult economic times.”

As per UNCTAD data the share of BRICS economies in the Global Trade has been increasing over the years. In 2010 it stood at 15 per cent up from 13.7 per cent the year before. In 2010-11 India had total trade worth USD 7519 million with Brazil. During the same period trade with Russia was USD 5179 million, with China USD 63095 million and with South Africa USD 11,125 million.

In such a scenario, the Ministers emphasised the need to resist protectionist tendencies and to promote international trade as an engine of economic growth and development, while respecting the WTO consistent policy space available to developing countries to pursue their legitimate objectives of growth, development and stability.

The BRICS leaders raised concerns over the impact of rising crude oil prices in the wake of sanctions being imposed by Europe and the US on Iran. On this issue Sharma said, “India respects international laws. But at the same time, we have economic engagements with our partners. We cannot overlook that.”

“Due to volatility of oil prices, India’s trade balance is widening and hurting the economy.  Our trade account is stressed primarily because of oil and gold imports,” Sharma added.

From SME Times and Travel Impact Newswire

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