Piyush Goyal attends 9th BRICS trade ministers meet in Brazil

Union Minister Piyush Goyal attended the 9th BRICS Trade Ministers meet in Brazil on November 11 where he deliberated on the global economic climate. Commerce and Industry Minister took to Twitter to inform that they spoke about advancing BRICS trade and investment cooperation at the meeting. 

Wary of non-tariff barriers

Piyush Goyal said that interaction with BRICS trade ministers revolved around the growing trend of non-tariff barriers which deny market access and lead to economic uncertainty. He added that for developing countries, especially in MSME sector, such non-tariff barriers raise the cost of doing trade.

“Thus, a win-win mindset is needed to spur trade & promote equity,” said the Union Minister.

Read: PM Modi To Leave For Brazil To Attend 11th BRICS Summit On Nov 13-14

Impact of predatory pricing

During the meet, Goyal highlighted the adverse impact of predatory pricing on millions of small retailers and the need for e-commerce to follow the letter and spirit of the law. At a BRICS meeting in 2017, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had said, “BRICS has to be a voice of stability, reform, progress & governance”. Quoting PM Modi, Goyal said that we should be committed to building an inclusive and development-centric world that focuses on hard economic realities of many countries.

Read: Brazil's Bolsonaro To Walk Diplomatic Tightrope At BRICS

Prime Minister to attend Summit

PM Modi will attend the BRICS Summit scheduled for November 13-14 and will also hold separate bilateral meetings with the Russian President Vladimir Putin and the Chinese Premier Xi Jinping. Prime Minister said that the visit to Brazil will give him an opportunity to hold talks with President Jair Bolsonaro on ways to deepen the India-Brazil strategic partnership.

“There is great potential in sectors like trade, defence, agriculture and energy,” PM Modi added. He said that improving economic linkages augur well for the BRICS nations.

BRICS, an association of five major emerging national economies (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa), comprises 42 per cent of the world’s population, 23 per cent of the Global GDP and around 17 per cent of the share in world trade. This year’s theme for BRICS Summit is ‘Economic growth for an innovative future.’

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