China’s trade policies to face pressure at BRICS meet

As the leaders of the five emerging economies Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa gather at the Chinese resort town of Sanya for the BRICS summit, one of the most important agreements likely to be reached relates to giving credit and grants to each other in their own currency instead of dollars.

"We (BRICS) are making a beginning ... an agreement will be signed under which BRICS countries will be able to issue credit or grants to each other in their own currency," national security adviser Shivshanker Menon told journalists accompanying the prime minister to Sanya.

Brazil, Russia, India and South Africa will also use the opportunity to push their host China to import more value-added goods from them, rather than just commodities such as oil, soybeans and iron ore.

Chinese commerce minister Chen Deming assured his counterparts in a closed-door meeting ahead of the summit beginning on Thursday that China would make it a priority to import more value-added products from BRICS countries, Indian trade minister Anand Sharma told reporters at Sanya.

Oleg Fomichev, Russia's deputy economic development minister, said China had pledged to set up high-technology projects with Russia, ''not just importing our resources and exporting industrial goods''.

Sharma said the BRICS countries, which are fastest growing economies and projected to contribute 48 per cent to the global economy in the next decade, would also discuss their role in addressing the international financial and economic crisis.