23 April 2012
The BRICS grouping of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa has called on the G20 to strengthen its coordination and find ways to improve the multilateral trading system in order to address current global economic uncertainties.
The call was made at a G20 ministerial meeting in Mexico over the weekend.
South African Trade and Industry Minister Rob Davies said the BRICS trade ministers had called upon their fellow G20 trade ministers to identify ways to improve the multilateral trading system.
“We have made this call, so that all economies may pursue a sustainable and ‘development-friendly’ integration in global trade, including adjustment strategies for their industries and workforce, as well as the appropriate social and sectoral policies to respond to existing structural vulnerabilities,” Davies said in a statement released on Monday.
Conclusion of Doha Round ‘vital’
The BRICS ministers had re-emphased their commitment to the Doha Development Round, saying the conclusion of the Doha would be a significant step in this direction and urging the G20 to work towards this.
According to BRICS ministers, while global value chains were playing an increasing role in trade, many sectors, industries and even countries were not participating in global value chains as fully as others.
“In order for global value chains to serve as instruments of growth and development, it would be important to develop a deeper understanding of their developmental impact and the conditions under which they can be used to achieve long term socio-economic gains,” Davies said.
At the same time, Davies cautioned that obstacles should not be placed in the way of the development and effective functioning of global value chains “for protectionist reasons”.
“In this context, it would be useful to have a member-driven process, in the WTO, Unctad and other intergovernmental agencies, to examine this issue, including the identification of more accurate statistical methods to assess value addition.”
SAinfo reporter
