M A I N   N E W S

At G-20 meet, BRICS to put up a united face 
Ashok Tuteja writes from Sanya in China

Presenting a picture of unity, BRICS nations today rejected the growing demand of the developed nations to provide them easy access to their markets and resolved to work out common positions on key economic issues ahead of the G-20 summit in France later this year.

Summit begins today Trade ministers of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa meet ahead of the summit The group favoured a continuation of the Doha round on the basis of a preliminary agreement that brought the talks nearly to a final deal in mid-2008 but rejected demands that developing countries now need to make more concessions It also pushed for Russia’s case for inclusion in the WTO

Trade ministers of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, after their meeting here, warned that global trade talks were at the risk of collapsing but said they were willing to resume negotiations based on 2008 agreements. The group favoured a continuation of the Doha round on the basis of a preliminary agreement that brought the talks nearly to a final deal in mid-2008 but rejected demands that developing countries now need to make more concessions. They also pushed Russia’s case for inclusion in the WTO.

Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma represented India at the meeting, which set the stage for the third BRICS summit to be held tomorrow amid high expectations that it would not only benefit the economies of the five member nations but also contribute to global development.

The summit will be attended by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Chinese President Hu Jintao, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, Brazil President Dilma Vana Rousseff and South Africa President Jacob Zuma. The summit leaders are expected to come out with a ‘Sanya Declaration’ at the end of their meet.

At the trade ministers’ meeting, India, Brazil, Russia and South Africa made a common cause to push their host to import more than just commodities such as oil, soybeans and iron ore.

Chinese Commerce Minister Chen Deming is believed to have assured his counterparts that Beijing would make it a priority to import more value-added products from its partners. India has been repeatedly asking Beijing to provide it easier access to the Chinese market in certain areas to reduce the growing trade imbalance between the two countries.

They also exchanged views on the global economic situation and each country's macro-economic policies after the global financial crisis. The ministers also discussed topics on how to deepen economic cooperation under the mechanism of BRICS and how to safeguard the interests of developing nations in multilateral cooperation.

The five BRICS countries, brought together under the Goldman Sachs Group Inc-coined acronym, however, remain divided over a host of trade issues.

The trade ministers also took stock of the recent developments in West Asia and North Africa as they could impact severely on global economy, the Indian minister told reporters, adding that it was essential for the BRICS countries to coordinate their position on the situation in the region. Indian officials say the BRICS is 21st century’s unique cooperative mechanism, which came into being in the wake of the emergence of a group of developing countries. In the past decade, the BRICS has evolved into a multi-level cooperative framework.