New Delhi (India), July 28 (ANI): While participating in the 14th BRICS Trade Ministers’ Meeting, Commerce Minister Sunil Barthwal stressed the need to strengthen the multilateral trading system with the WTO, the Ministry of Commerce and Industry said in an official press release on Sunday. The commerce minister stressed the need to find a solution to long-pending mandate issues of the WTO. Barthwal stressed the urgent need to resolve issues including a permanent solution to Public Stock Holding, establishment of the two-tier dispute settlement system and WTO reform based on the principles and objectives of the World Trade Organization. Public Stock Holding is a policy instrument used by governments to procure, store and distribute grains to ensure food security for their people.

The Commerce Minister also expressed the need to enhance effective functioning of joint value chains, expand interaction among SMEs, highlight India’s success story in digitalisation and e-commerce and underline the relevance of cooperation among Special Economic Zones.

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He attended the 14th meeting of BRICS Trade Ministers held on July 26, 2024 under the BRICS chairmanship of the Russian Federation.

He emphasised strengthening supply chain resilience through decentralisation and diversification, promoting collaboration in value chains through the G20 Generic Mapping Framework for GVCs and formulating guiding principles for collaboration.

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In this context, he stressed the importance of paperless trade as a first step towards digitalisation, including the digitalisation of documents such as bills of lading.

The Trade Minister also called for collaboration to make access to affordable emerging technologies critical to the green transition and climate resilience.

The Minister of Trade expressed concern about unilateral climate measures that have an impact on trade. He noted that such measures negate rights and obligations under specialized multilateral environmental agreements, violate the NDC principles and ignore the CBDR principles.

During the meeting, he stressed the urgency of accelerating inclusive digital transformation.

Referring to India’s success story in building an open source India Stack of Critical Digital Public infrastructure as part of digital industrialisation, the Commerce Minister indicated that India is ready to share its experiences with BRICS countries on e-revolution in the areas of payments, e-commerce, national identity, banking, education, etc.

Barthwal reiterated Jaipur’s call to action to improve access to information for SMEs, which was issued during the Indian Presidency in 2023. He also praised the Russian Presidency for taking the initiative forward by making efforts to collect basic information on SMEs among the BRICS members. (ANI)

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