India and the four other members of the BRICS grouping today pledged to rise above protectionism and safeguard the multilateral trade system to promote a strong, balanced and inclusive global growth.
"We should jointly tackle the challenges of economic globalisation, promote open and quitable world economy, and uphold the common interests of the emerging markets and developing countries with a view to promoting strong, sustainable, balanced and inclusive growth," a joint statement released after a meeting of the trade ministers from Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa said.
The countries are also members of the World Trade Organisation (WTO), playing a major part in global economic governance, according to the statement released after the two-day meeting in Shanghai.
India's Minister of State for Commerce and Trade, Nirmala Sitharaman, who headed a six-member delegation, took part in the talks.
The BRICS ministers agreed to firmly oppose protectionism and pledged to annul any protective measures, calling on other countries to follow suit.
They also encouraged more countries to participate in the WTO, urging the institution to show more commitment to receiving the least developed countries.
"Safeguarding the multilateral trade system and the rise against protectionism serves the common interests of emerging and developing economies," Zhong Shan, China's Minister of Commerce, said yesterday.
"As the host nation of this year's meeting, China has confidence in implementing the consensus reached by leaders of BRICS nations. The Shanghai meeting will pave way for the leaders' summit later this year," Zhong has been quoted as saying by the state-run Xinhua news agency.
China, which took over the BRICS presidency this year, will host the Ninth BRICS Summit in September in Xiamen, southeast China's Fujian Province.
Besides adopting a joint statement, the BRICS trade ministers also approved the group's Trade in Services Cooperation Roadmap, E-Commerce Cooperation Initiative, IPR Cooperation Guidelines, Framework on strengthening the Economic and Technical Cooperation of BRICS Countries, Terms of Reference (ToR) of BRICS Model E-Port Network and outlines for BRICS Investment Facilitation, said a release by the Indian Consulate in Shanghai.
The other delegations were represented by Rob Davies, Minister of Trade and Industry (South Africa), Marcelo Maia Tavares de Araujo, Secretary of Commerce and Services of Ministry of Industry (Brazil) and Maxim Oreshkin, Minister of Economic Development (Russia).
Yesterday, Sitharaman held talks with her Chinese counterpart over India's concerns relating to the spiralling bilateral trade deficit in favour of China which has crossed over USD 52 billion.
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