Rio de Janeiro (Brazil) (AFP) – China, Brazil and other members of the BRICS grouping on Tuesday slammed the “resurgence of trade protectionism” at a meeting in Rio de Janeiro dominated by US President Donald Trump’s tariffs blitz. Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi and his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov were among the top diplomats of the 11-country grouping attending two days of talks on issues ranging from Trump’s trade war to the push for peace in Ukraine. Mauro Vieira, the foreign minister of Brazil which holds the rotating BRICS presidency, said the bloc underscored its “firm rejection” of protectionism, without explicitly referring to Trump.
Since returning to the White House in January, Trump has hit dozens of countries with a blanket 10 percent tariff, but China faces levies of up to 145 percent on many products. Beijing has responded with duties of 125 percent on US goods. BRICS, which was founded by Brazil, Russia, India and China in 2009 and now also includes Egypt, Ethiopia, Indonesia, Iran, Saudi Arabia, South Africa and the United Arab Emirates, has become a major counterweight to Western-led groups such as the G7. It now makes up nearly half of the world’s population and 39 percent of global GDP. The meeting in Rio came at a critical moment for the world economy after the International Monetary Fund slashed growth forecasts over the impact of Trump’s sweeping levies on imports. The ministers did not issue a joint statement. Brazil instead settled for a declaration summarizing the discussions. Vieira said there was “absolute consensus” on the subject of “trade conflicts and tariffs.”
Some BRICS members have avoided Trump’s trade fury. Brazilian exports to the United States are subject to 10 percent tariffs, a fraction of those imposed on China. And while Latin America’s biggest economy has been hit by Trump’s tariffs on steel imports — Brazil is the second-biggest supplier of steel to the US — President Luiz Inacio Lula’s government has declined to retaliate and sought to negotiate with Washington instead. Brazil has however made no secret of its frustration with European Union regulations on some of its agricultural exports, imposed over Amazon deforestation. Vieira hit out Tuesday at the use of “non-tariff” trade barriers, deployed under “environmental pretexts.”
The group trod more carefully on the issue of non-dollar transactions among BRICS members. At a summit last year in Russia, BRICS leaders discussed boosting such transactions, eliciting a swift rebuke from Trump who threatened them with 100 percent tariffs if they undercut the US currency. Brazil said the ministers this week had “underlined the importance of greater use of local currencies.”
“Multilateralism” and “cooperation” were the watchwords of the meeting, which also discussed the wars in Ukraine and Gaza. The BRICS ministers called for a “complete withdrawal” of Israeli forces from Gaza, terming Israel’s more than 50-day aid blockade of the territory “unacceptable.” They had less to say about the war in Ukraine, which is at a critical juncture, with Washington threatening to end its efforts to broker peace in the absence of a breakthrough. As in the past, Russia’s BRICS partners stopped short of condemning Moscow’s invasion of its neighbor, while calling for a “lasting peace deal.”
The growing global polarization is of particular concern to Brazil as it prepares to host the annual, often fractious UN climate conference in November in the Amazon. On Tuesday, Brazil warned that the international “fragmentation” was jeopardizing global “climate action ambitions.”
© 2024 AFP
