BRICS economies are increasingly moving towards coordinating their policies on the international stage, including in the World Trade Organization (WTO). On July 26, 2024 during the meeting of BRICS Economy and Foreign Trade Ministers in Moscow, representatives of BRICS economies agreed to coordinate their policies within the WTO. The key priorities of the creation of such a BRICS platform within the WTO include supporting the organization’s viability and effectiveness in resolving trade disputes (given the challenges faced in the operation of the WTO Dispute Settlement Body) as well as in countering rising protectionism. The creation of a common platform in the WTO should contribute to greater economic policy coordination for BRICS economies in the trade sphere and will also allow developing economies to play a greater role in the organization’s decision-making.
The pursuit of greater policy coordination and a common platform among the BRICS economies in the WTO has been our long-standing call to action for more than 7 years. As we argued in 2017, “BRICS+ countries could … form alliances in other international organizations, including the WTO, where a BRICS+ group in negotiations could complement other South-South alliances”. Indeed, “after Russia’s WTO accession all BRICS members are now in the WTO and can create partnerships within the organization to defend national interests, advance sustainable development issues and counter the specter of rising global protectionism”.
A more detailed analysis of the pathways of BRICS+ cooperation in international economic organizations, most notably in the WTO, was delivered in the 2021 paper by E. Arapova and Y. Lissovolik, “The BRICS Plus Cooperation in International Organizations: Prospects for Reshaping the Global Agenda”. Asia-Pacific Social Science Review | Vol. 21 No. 4 | December 2021. In this publication, the authors advance a range of possible tracks of cooperation among BRICS+ economies in the WTO:
- WTO reform: BRICS economies “share a common vision of WTO reform, which was declared in the communique signed by the five countries at the end of the Informal BRICS Leaders’ Meeting in Buenos Aires in November 2018”.
- BRICS+ economies can also “collectively address contemporary threats … such as the growing number of unilateral sanctions and protectionist measures in connection with violations of international trade rules, the aggravation of trade wars, as well as the primacy of national laws over the international law”.
- The BRICS countries could also advance “the issue of closer interaction between the WTO and regional blocs on the WTO agenda, for example, by clarifying the criteria for their openness and launching discussions on the trade policies of regional blocs in the WTO”.
- The BRICS Plus countries may also focus on “such new issues as e-commerce and investment facilitation that reflect the reality of international economy and trade in the 21st century that have not yet been addressed”.
Another area of cooperation for BRICS in the WTO may be the provision of assistance to those BRICS core economies and partners of the grouping that have not yet secured full-fledged WTO membership. While until 2023 all BRICS core economies were members of the WTO, after the 2023-2024 core expansion two new BRICS entrants, namely Ethiopia and Iran, were still outside of the trade organization. Furthermore, a number of potential members of the BRICS “partnership belt”, such as Belarus or Algeria, are also not yet full members of the WTO. In this respect, a BRICS/BRICS+ platform/”group in negotiations” within the WTO could target coordinated measures to support the WTO accession process of those BRICS/BRICS+ economies that have not yet secured WTO membership.
Overall, greater policy coordination among BRICS economies in the WTO should be conducive to raising the role of developing economies in international organizations and forums, including global platforms such as the G20. A more consolidated approach to BRICS trade policy coordination may strengthen the role of the developing world in the WTO and advance the agenda of the Global South in such areas as e-commerce, environmental standards in international trade, the launching of new WTO trade rounds and the resuscitation of the operation of the WTO’s Dispute Settlement Body. Finally, there may also be important positive implications from the formation of the BRICS alliance in the WTO for greater trade liberalization within the BRICS/BRICS+ platform – something that may redound to greater trade openness in the world economy and a revitalization of the international trade system predicated according to BRICS on the key role of the WTO.