Customs duties: BRICS to express 'serious concerns'
The trade war launched by the American president since his return to the White House has dominated the discussions of the group, which represents nearly half of the world's population and 40% of the planet's GDP.
The BRICS will express their " serious concerns " about " unilateral " customs duties at their summit which begins Sunday in Rio de Janeiro, without however mentioning US President Donald Trump , according to the draft final declaration seen by AFP.
Under the auspices of left-wing Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva , leaders of the group of 11 major emerging countries (including Brazil, China, India, Russia and South Africa) are holding their annual summit on Sunday and Monday in Rio.
Skip the adThe trade war launched by the American president since his return to the White House is dominating the discussions of the group, which represents nearly half of the world's population and 40% of the planet's GDP. " We express serious concerns about the increase in unilateral customs and non-customs measures that distort trade and are not consistent with WTO (World Trade Organization) rules ," reads the text, which negotiators agreed on Saturday.
According to the document, which could still be amended by the leaders at the summit, such customs measures " threaten to further reduce global trade " and could " affect the prospects for economic development around the world ." While Donald Trump is not named, emerging countries are clearly targeting the American president's policy and his barrage of punitive tariffs. The latter said Friday that he had signed letters addressed to the United States' trading partners regarding the application of customs surcharges by Washington, " probably twelve " of which will be sent on Monday.
Taking the opposite view, Lula on Saturday championed multilateralism: " Faced with the resurgence of protectionism, it is up to emerging nations to defend the multilateral trade regime and reform the international financial architecture ."
Chinese President Xi Jinping will be absent for the first time from the BRICS summit, despite his country being the dominant power. Russian President Vladimir Putin, who is the subject of an arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court (ICC) for alleged war crimes in Ukraine, will also be absent. But he will speak via videoconference, according to the Kremlin. Negotiators also reached a consensus on Saturday on how to discuss the military escalation in the Middle East, a subject that had divided delegations, according to another source involved in the discussions.
Iran, fresh from a 12-day war with Israel and the United States, wanted the BRICS to toughen their stance in the final communiqué. But the document must retain " the same language " as a statement the group published on the subject at the end of June, according to this source. The emerging countries had then condemned the " military attacks " against Iran—but without mentioning Israel and the United States—and deemed it " urgent to break the cycle of violence and restore peace ." Iranian President Massoud Pezeshkian will not attend the summit. He will be represented by his Foreign Minister, Abbas Araghchi, who arrived in Rio on Saturday, a ministry spokesperson said on the social network X.
Skip the adCreated with the aim of rebalancing the world order in favor of the " Global South " against the West, the BRICS group has expanded over the past two years to include Saudi Arabia, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, Ethiopia, Iran, and then Indonesia. Brazil, which will host COP30, the UN climate conference, in November in the Amazonian city of Belem, also hopes to reach a consensus on combating climate change. In addition to the hoped-for final declaration, texts on climate, as well as artificial intelligence and health cooperation, are due to be published.
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