BRICS proposes vaccine access, consumer safety

At the 11th BRICS trade ministers meeting, held under the chairmanship of Indian commerce minister Piyush Goyal, members agreed to work on newer areas such as consumer protection, e-commerce, genetic resources, traditional knowledge and cooperation in professional services

The BRICS nations -- Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa – proposed to have a common action plan to ensure consumer protection amid growing usage of e-commerce while emphasising on the need for an early outcome of the Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) waiver for Covid-19 vaccines.

An Air India flight carrying doses of the Covishield vaccine manufactured in India is seen after its arrival at the Velana International Airport, in Male on January 20, 2021. (AFP)

At the 11th BRICS trade ministers meeting on Friday, which was held under the chairmanship of Indian commerce minister Piyush Goyal, members agreed to work on newer areas such as consumer protection, e-commerce, genetic resources, traditional knowledge and cooperation in professional services, a commerce ministry statement said.

The members also agreed for a common approach towards the multilateral trading system, particularly in the forthcoming ministerial conference of World Trade Organisation (WTO), it said. The 12th ministerial conference (MC12) of WTO will take place from November 30 to December 3 this year in Geneva.

India and South Africa lead the group of countries at WTO in seeking a waiver for certain provisions of the TRIPS agreement to provide universal access of Covid-19 vaccines to the poor countries.

At the meeting, which was held in virtual format on Friday, Goyal raised developmental needs of developing and least developed countries (LDCs) and urged BRICS countries to work together for strengthening the multilateral system such as the WTO, the statement said.

There was a consensus among BRICS members for jointly working towards protection of genetic resources, traditional knowledge and traditional cultural expressions so as to address the issue of its misappropriation through mandatory disclosure of source of origin of the resource, it said. “This will also help moving together in international forums on this issue,” it added.

“In this era of exponential jump in the use of e-commerce and online electronic transactions, the convergence to draw a common action plan amongst BRICS countries will help in to promote exploring practical options for ensuring consumer protection,” the statement said. India in July last year proposed the Consumer Protection (e-Commerce) Rules to prevent unfair trade practices in e-commerce that harm the interest of consumers in the long run.

At the meeting, Goyal stressed on the need for a permanent, adequate and equitable solution to the public stockholding programmes for food security purposes. The matter has been under discussion at the WTO. The issue of public stockholding programmes for food security purposes requires developing countries to purchase and stockpile food and distribute it to the poor. But, the scheme is also viewed by some as a trade distortion as it could be an indirect way to support farmers.

Despite numerous challenges and constraints on account of the Covid-19 pandemic and the associated travel restriction, Goyal was successful in building consensus for new areas of work and cooperation amongst BRICS countries. Common understanding amongst BRICS countries was reached on a range of subjects for the first time such as consumer protection, e-commerce, genetic resources, traditional knowledge and cooperation in professional services, the statement said.

The theme chosen by India for its BRICS chairship is ‘BRICS@15: Intra BRICS Cooperation for Continuity, Consolidation and Consensus’. The BRICS ministers acknowledged the importance of strengthening intra-BRICS cooperation in achieving the common goal of making their goods and services globally competitive and further integrating into the global value chain, the statement said.