Earlier this week UNCTAD released a report on BRICS trade figures, with well-targeted and timely recommendations for the bloc’s trade policy. The report comes at a time when the BRICS is facing unprecedented pressure in the trade sphere, with a more coherent policy agenda for trade cooperation becoming a top priority for the coming years. We broadly support the policy recommendations provided by UNCTAD and believe that the BRICS could greatly benefit from putting some of these key recommendations into practice.
The first part of the BRICS report from UNCTAD presents summary stats and analysis on intra-BRICS trade over the course of the past several decades. Some of the key conclusions derived in the UNCTAD report include the following[1]:
- The total merchandise exports from BRICS countries to the world surged from $906 billion in 2003 to $5.9 trillion in 2024. This dynamic growth led to an increase in BRICS’ share of global exports from approximately 12 per cent to about 24 per cent.
- Intra-BRICS trade (on export side) rose from $84.2 billion USD in 2003 to $1.17 trillion USD in 2024, growing at an annual average rate of 13.3 per cent, much higher than the rate for global trade (5.7 per cent) or overall South-South trade (9.5 per cent) in the same period
- In terms of total exports, the share of BRICS stands at 24 per cent of the world’s or 53 per cent of the South’s total. But the scale of intra-BRICS trade in 2024 only accounted for about 5 per cent of world trade and 20 per cent of South-South trade which falls short of their role in international economic and trade landscape.
Importantly, the UNCTAD report also presents a number of policy recommendations for BRICS, most notably in the sphere of trade policy. These policy proposals in our view are very much on target and include the following (below is a condensed version that does not contain all the report’s recommendations)[2]:
- Managing heterogeneity and policy diversity: recognizing complementarity as a strategic strength can serve as a foundation for deeper cooperation.
- BRICS members may consider a Trade+ strategy, which includes three components:
- BRICS may consider a bold decision to initiate a BRICS trade agreement/arrangement.
- Fostering Trade + linkages with other policy action areas. On the basis of the existing initiatives, it is suggested to establish various task forces (TFs) with scopes focusing on selected issues such as a). trade + macro-finance coordination; b). trade + industrial development; c) trade + digital finance including discussion on a BRICS-wide regulatory framework; d). trade + agricultural development; e). trade + digital and data policies; f). trade + green low carbon transition;
- Reforming BRICS trade workstream:
- For technical discussion at the BRICS Contact Group on Economic and Trade Issues (CGETI)[3], it may introduce a Troika approach including two permanent co-Chairs + presidency country.
- Under the CGETI, designing a non-binding and voluntary dispute settlement procedure to help member states resolve trade and investment frictions.
- Establish a regular dialogue between CGETI and international organization/mechanism such as NDB, UNCTAD, WTO, World Bank, IMF, etc. to improve the relevance and influence of the BRICS trade policy discussion with multilateral trade agenda.
We support these policy recommendations and further note that they are very much in line with the thrust of our proposals on BRICS policy priorities in the trade sphere. In particular, we have argued in favour of a Troika approach to greater policy continuity, with our proposed BRICS Troika modality being modelled on the G20 framework and hence somewhat different from the Troika format proposed by UNCTAD[4]. The call on BRICS to recognize complementarity as a strategic strength is also in the vein of our earlier concept of BRICS “strategic complementarity” as a guiding principle for BRICS economic policy cooperation[5].
We also very much support UNCTAD’s call for a BRICS trade agreement – this would be broadly in line with our earlier proposals for BRICS+ and BEAMS frameworks predicated on trade agreements coordinated by BRICS across the main regional integration arrangements in which BRICS economies are members[6]. In this respect, given the rising role of RTAs in developing economies’ trade policies, we believe that a bit of a greater emphasis on the potential role of Global South regionalism and regional development institutions could have been made by UNCTAD in the list of its trade policy recommendations.
Overall, the latest report on BRICS produced by UNCTAD builds on earlier research efforts of this UN organization, including a BRICS Investment report[7] in 2023 as well as the reports “A BRICS Agenda for Enhancing Climate Finance”[8] and “Fostering BRICS leadership on climate ambition amid trade and climate tensions”[9] in 2025. In effect, UNCTAD is becoming the leading research platform on BRICS across international organizations – something that calls for greater cooperation on the part of the bloc with UNCTAD in designing future policy frameworks in the sphere of trade and economic cooperation.
The UNCTAD report on BRICS trade patterns may be accessed via the following link:
https://unctad.org/system/files/official-document/tcsgdsinf2025d2_en.pdf
[1] As per the report’s formulations: https://unctad.org/system/files/official-document/tcsgdsinf2025d2_en.pdf
[2] As per the report’s formulations: https://unctad.org/system/files/official-document/tcsgdsinf2025d2_en.pdf
[3] The BRICS Contact Group on Economic and Trade Issues (CGETI), established in 2011, is a key contact group for BRICS Members to discuss trade and economic policy issues.
[4] https://brics-plus-analytics.org/a-brics-troika-format-for-chairmanship-transition/
[5] https://brics-plus-analytics.org/on-brics-strategic-complementarity/
[6] https://brics-plus-analytics.org/a-coordinated-trade-response-from-brics/
[7] https://unctad.org/publication/brics-investment-report
[8] https://unctad.org/publication/brics-agenda-enhancing-climate-finance
[9] https://unctad.org/publication/fostering-brics-leadership-climate-ambition-amid-trade-and-climate-tensions
Yaroslav Lissovolik, Founder, BRICS+ Analytics
Image by Esten-Erbol via Pixabay