A series of decisions by the United States (U.S) to impose trade tariffs on various major trade partners, including the BRICS member countries, China, India, Russia, Brazil and South Africa, have catapulted the world towards escalating trade protectionism amidst rising retaliatory ‘tit-for-tat’ tariffs as well as non-tariff measures.
According to Rajiv Biswas, Asia Pacific Chief Economist at IHS Markit, a U.S-China trade war has already begun, and U.S-European Union (EU) trade tensions are escalating. The negative impact of U.S tariff measures for world trade will be at the top of the agenda for the BRICS Summit, he added.
Given the failure of the G-20 Finance Ministers meeting held earlier this week to defuse the threat to world trade from rising protectionism, the BRICS Summit is likely to become a key global forum for galvanizing global support for multilateral trade liberalization. The BRICS nations will also seek to gain broader global support from developing countries for a global trade liberalization agenda.
