Putin, Xi at BRICS summit expected to take aim at US tariffs
RUSSIAN PRESIDENT Vladimir Putin, Chinese President Xi Jinping, and other leaders of the BRICS emerging economies are gathering i n South Africa for a summit likely to feature criticism of US President Donald Trump’s wave of tariffs on foreign goods.
The tariffs, and tit-for-tat taxes by United States’ trading partners, are fuelling global worry over economic growth, particularly in developing nations that are heavily reliant on exports.
The trade disputes with Washington could also provide focus for the globe-spanning BRICS group that has lacked the clout of other multilateral institutions that guide global trade.
Its members – Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa – are home to three billion people, or roughly 40 per cent of the world’s population, with political systems ranging from democratic to authoritarian. China and India, the two most populous countries, have a border dispute. South Africa has expressed concern about a trade imbalance with China, its biggest trading partner.
COMMON GROUND
Despite their differences, the BRICS countries likely will find common ground in denunciations of ‘protectionism’, the label affixed to US policies that Trump says are designed to restore fairness for American companies.
China’s ambassador in South Africa set the tone in an opinion piece published in The Star, a South African newspaper.
BRICS countries should cooperate to counter a “certain superpower” that has “recklessly
implemented unilateralism and protectionism” and undermined “economic globalisation and the multilateral trading regime,” Ambassador Lin Songtian wrote.
At a weekend meeting of the Group of 20 nations in Argentina on Sunday, US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin disputed that protectionism is the issue and said trade should be conducted on “fair and reciprocal terms.” The G20 is composed of traditional economic powers such as the United States, Japan and Germany as well as nations such as China, Brazil, India, and Argentina.
The Trump administration’s trade measures have included tariffs on steel and aluminium. China is the main target but US allies such as the European Union and Japan have also been subjected to them.
The BRICS countries are concerned about “rising protectionism” and will work “to strengthen those areas where
their interests align,” said Cyril Prinsloo, a researcher at the South African Institute of International Affairs, a research centre based in Johannesburg.
China’s Xi held talks in South Africa with President Cyril Ramaphosa on Tuesday, ahead of the start of the three-day BRICS summit on Wednesday. The two countries signed investment agreements worth US$14 billion, Ramaphosa said.
The other BRICS leaders are Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Brazilian President Michel Temer. Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, is also expected to attend.
The BRICS summit comes at a time of increasing “unilateralism” and provides an opportunity for member nations to push for a “larger collective role in global affairs,”said François Gamet, head of Asia for the Standard Bank Group.