BRICS leaders firmly oppose protectionism

BRICS leaders reaffirmed on Monday they remained committed to an open and inclusive world economy and firmly opposed protectionism.

"We will continue to firmly oppose protectionism. We recommit to our existing pledge for both standstill and rollback of protectionist measures and we call upon other countries to join us in that commitment," said the Xiamen Declaration, adopted at the 9th BRICS Summit here.

The BRICS countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) said they remain committed to open and inclusive multilateral trading system as embodied in the World Trade Organisation.

"We emphasise the importance of an open and inclusive world economy enabling all countries and peoples to share in the benefits of globalisation. We remain firmly committed to a rules-based, transparent, non-discriminatory, open and inclusive multilateral trading system as embodied in the WTO."

The countries reaffirmed their commitments to ensure full implementation and enforcement of existing WTO rules and said they were determined to work together to further strengthen the organisation.

"We call for the acceleration of the implementation of the Bali and Nairobi MCM outcomes and for the WTO ministerial conference to be held this year in Argentina to produce positive outcomes," it added.

The summit was attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Presidents Xi Jinping of China, Vladimir Putin of Russia, Michel Temer of Brazil and Jacob Zuma of South Africa.

--IANS

ps/vt