BRICS Trade Ministers’ Statement for BRICS Cooperation on the Multilateral Trading System 2021

  1. Reaffirming the support of BRICS member countries for a rule-based, transparent, equitable, open, inclusive, and non-discriminatory multilateral trading system, as embodied in the World Trade Organization (WTO);

  2. Emphasizing the importance of an effectively functioning WTO with all the WTO members abiding by the WTO rules and complying with their WTO commitments;

  3. Expressing our willingness to engage constructively in the work aimed at improving the functioning of the WTO, including the necessary WTO reform to cover all its three key functions, namely negotiating, monitoring, and dispute settlement, as well as constructively cooperating in exploring multilateral solutions to the systemic challenges facing the WTO;

We hereby declare the following:

  1. We call on all WTO members to work together to ensure that the WTO continues to play a central role in rule-making for global trade and in promoting predictability, stability, and certainty in the international trade. It is critical that all WTO Members avoid unilateral and protectionist measures that run counter to the spirit and rules of the WTO.

  2. Given the present crisis on account of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic worldwide and the need for its immediate mitigation, we are committed to working together to strengthen a non-discriminatory rules-based global environment for the expansion of international cooperation on the COVID-19 health production and technologies. We urge all the WTO members to work proactively towards the early conclusion of text-based discussions of the TRIPS waiver proposal which is based on the balance between the interests of manufacturers of the pharmaceutical products and public health as it is stipulated in WTO Doha Declaration on TRIPS Agreement and Public health. We also call on comprehensive outcomes aimed at improving transparency and monitoring, advancing facilitation, and enhancing collaboration and cooperation on COVID-19. We are also committed to take appropriate measures to improve global access to medical products and technologies including vaccines, diagnostics, and therapeutics. In this regard, we agree to strive to achieve multilateral outcomes on this issue at the MC12.

  3. We support a balanced, progressive, and inclusive WTO reform agenda that is aimed at strengthening resilience, efficacy, and authority of the organization. The reform must, inter alia, ensure the ability of the organization for the promotion of inclusive economic growth, development, and fair competition for international trade. We urge preservation of the centrality, core values, and fundamental principles of the multilateral trading system, as well as the interests of all members of the organization, while respecting all the commitments undertaken. We recognize that special and differential treatment is a tool to facilitate the achievement of WTO objectives with respect to economic growth and development.

  4. We recognize that restoration of the normal functioning of the Appellate Body is of foremost priority for ensuring that the rules made at the WTO are enforced promptly, providing security and predictability to the multilateral trading system. We believe that an independent, automatic, binding two-tier multilateral disputes settlement system is crucial for the WTO and call upon the swift launching of the selection process of the AB members. We also support urgent launch of substantive discussions in Geneva aimed to achieve multilaterally agreed solutions to recover full functionality of the system.

  5. The reform process should, inter alia, deliver on issues under discussion in agriculture and contribute towards trust building among members and strengthening of the multilateral trading system.

  6. We underscore the significance of the ongoing WTO negotiations on fisheries subsidies and urge all WTO members to continue working towards achieving meaningful outcomes in the fisheries subsidies negotiations by MC12. We further recognize that appropriate and effective special and differential treatment for developing country members including LDCs should be an integral part of these negotiations, as mandated by the WTO Ministerial Decision of 2017 and SDG 14.6.

  7. Taking note of the ongoing work on issues in the WTO, we emphasize the need for WTO Members to work constructively to achieve multilateral outcomes.

  8. We underline that all measures taken to tackle climate change must be designed, adopted, and implemented in full conformity with the WTO Agreements and must not constitute a means of arbitrary or unjustifiable discrimination or a disguised restriction on international trade.

  9. We express our common intention to work constructively with other WTO Members with a view to achieve tangible, realistic, and meaningful outcomes at MC12. The success of MC12 can enhance the authority and efficacy of WTO, building trust among the WTO Members and enabling WTO to contribute towards improving the global economic governance and better respond to the interests of all Members.

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