On 2628 February,
the 23rd meeting of the BRICS Contact Group on Economic and Trade Issues took
place. It was the Contact Groups first meeting since the start of the Russian
BRICS Chairmanship in 2020. The meeting was chaired by Natalia Stapran,
Director of the Department for Multilateral Economic Cooperation and Special
Projects at the Russian Ministry of Economic Development.
The meeting
participants expressed their support of the Russian BRICS Chairmanships key
economic priorities, as proposed by the Russian side, including trade and
investments without barriers or sanctions; digital economy for the people;
sustainable growth and balanced development. A discussion took place on the
updated version of the Strategy for BRICS Economic Partnership by 2025, which
was presented by the Russian side for the first time. «We placed the main
emphasis on the five countries cooperation in the field of digital
transformation, as well as on boosting the role of sustainable and inclusive development
agenda,» Natalia Stapran said. The document sets out pressing issues that
the BRICS countries are facing, particularly those related to infrastructure
development, including in remote and rural areas.
Among new issues
selected by the Russian BRICS Chairmanship, Russias comprehensive initiative
for the development and integration of remote and rural areas captured
particular interest of its BRICS partners. Currently, system-wide efforts are
being made to develop the initiative at APEC, the SCO, and the ASEAN-Russia
Dialogue Partnership.
While considering
e-commerce issues, the countries agreed to discuss best practices and
approaches to the protection of consumer rights, Natalia Stapran said. «I
am confident that Russias experience in digitisation in this sphere will be
highly relevant. Digital transformation in the context of the service industry
development and advanced experience in this sphere will also be important issues
of discussions,» she said.
The BRICS
countries also discussed supporting a comprehensive trade system, the WTO
reform[НШ1] , and preparations for the Twelfth WTO Ministerial Conference
(MC12), to take place in June 2020 in Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan. The sides
confirmed the priority importance of resolving the WTO Appellate Bodys crisis
and the importance of preserving the two-stage system for dispute settlement at
the WTO. They also agreed to take further efforts to seek common ground for
both the organisations negotiation agenda and the WTO reform agenda.
The participants also discussed the issues related to transparent trade policy and possible further steps to provide more transparent conditions for the economic activity of BRICS countries operators.
Source: https://eng.brics-russia2020.ru/