|
Impact of the BRIICS on International Markets
Brazil, Russia, India, Indonesia, China and South Africa represent a group of emerging economies that have become increasingly open to world trade in the last twenty years. Together they account for 46.5% of world’s population, employ almost half of the world’s labour force, make up 12.9% of the value of world income at current prices and 12.4% of world merchandise trade in 2006. Their growing importance in the world economy is continuously reshaping world markets for goods and services as well as the architecture of global trade relations.
Despite sharing the characteristic of being important economic players, the individual BRIICS economies exhibit different industry patterns of comparative advantage – energy rich and energy poor, resource rich and resource poor, expanding rapidly in manufactures and/or services. Their regional locations impose different sets of trade and trade policy challenges and they each occupy important geo-political niches. Their recent economic and trade performance varies significantly.
The BRIICS are experimenting with new development ideas and challenging traditional policy designs for institutional development. For example, countries like India are attempting to develop from a leading export and growth pole in services to raise productivity in the rest of the economy, while South Africa and Russia continue to be heavily specialised in natural resources.
Questions for discussion:
● What are the most significant ways in which the BRIICS economies impact upon world markets?
● What are the import and export challenges facing the BRIICS in the medium term? What are the implications of their likely responses for the rest of the world?
● OECD countries have an important stake in the development of emerging economies. How best can OECD countries support emerging economies’ economic dynamism?
● How should trade policy in other emerging economies and developed countries adapt to the BRIICS’ growing weight in world trade?
● What lessons for other developing countries can be drawn from the experiences of each of the BRIICS economies?
Back to the Programme of the Global Forum on Trade, June 2008
|
