As one of the world’s most important economic cooperation platforms, BRICS has expanded from 5 members to the 10 official members and 10 partner countries, with significant increase of its role in the international economic landscape.
The trade among the 10 members has expanded very rapidly in the last two decades. On the export side, the intra-BRICS merchandise trade increased 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.
Despite the rapid growth in the last 2 decades, the scale of intra-BRICS trade is still not comparable to their economic size or their trade capacity. The BRICS members collectively accounted for 27 per cent of global GDP or 68 per cent global South’s GDP. In terms of total exports, the share of BRICS is 24 per cent of the world’s or 53 per cent of the South’s total. But the scale of intra-BRICS trade only accounted for about 5 per cent of world trade and 20 per cent of South-South trade as of 2024.
The structure of intra-BRICS trade has evolved. Many BRICS members demonstrate persistent dependence on primary products exports while importing manufactured goods with higher technology intensity, though some of them show mixed pictures with exports of technology intensive products as well. India has seen moderate progress in export diversification. China represents the case of successful industrial upgrading, marked by transformation from labor-intensive to higher technology intensive manufactured goods exports.
On trade policy side, BRICS members so far mainly rely on soft initiatives to lay groundwork for deeper and more concrete cooperation. The ten BRICS member countries have joined numerous preferential trade arrangements, but a comprehensive trade agreement encompassing the entire bloc has yet to be established. This report suggests that BRICS may adopt a Trade+ strategy to build political willingness, initiate a region-wide trade agreement, foster linkages between trade and other policy action areas and reform BRICS trade workstreams. UNCTAD and other relevant international organizations can assist BRICS to strengthen the institutional capacities for stronger economic and trade cooperation with their expertise, experiences and networks.