BRICS contact group holds first meeting on economic and trade issues

The BRICS Contact Group on Economic and Trade Issues (CGETI) leads held their first meeting under India's chairship from March 9 to 11, according to an official statement released on Friday.

The theme of BRICS this year is 'BRICS@15: Intra BRICS Cooperation for Continuity, Consolidation and Consensus.'

India under its chairship in 2021 presented the calendar of events for BRICS CGETI 2021 which includes priority areas for deliverables, schedule and scope of the MSME roundtable conference workshop on services statistics and BRICS Trade Fair.

This was followed by a series of presentations scheduled in separate sessions made by the concerned departments on proposed deliverables.

The deliverables proposed are on: action plan based on the document strategy for BRICS Economic Partnership 2025' adopted during Russian Presidency in 2020, BRICS Cooperation on multilateral trading system including cooperation for TRIPS waiver proposal at WTO, framework for consumer protection in e-commerce, non-tariff measures resolution mechsm, stary and phyto-stary working mechsm, cooperation framework for protection of genetic resources and traditional knowledge, BRICS framework on cooperation in professional services.

Each of these sessions was followed by detailed feedback sessions, said a statement issued by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry.

The BRICS partners appreciated the activities planned by India, being timely and relevant in the current context, and expressed their support for working together on various initiatives proposed by India.

Till September, inter-sessional deliberations will be carried out to reach a consensus among BRICS countries. The BRICS officers tasked with CGETI will continue the work for 27th official level CGETI meeting scheduled to be held in June.

( With inputs from ANI )