New Delhi: BRICS on Saturday sharply criticised unilateral tariffs and trade-restrictive measures and opposed carbon border adjustment mechanisms (CBAMs), saying such measures risk becoming discriminatory, protectionist barriers that disproportionately hurt developing economies.
BRICS leaders adopted a New Delhi Declaration at their 18th summit that sharply slammed Western trade barriers, explicitly naming carbon border adjustment mechanisms for the first time, and renewing demands for sweeping reform of the World Trade Organization, as the 11-nation grouping sought to present a unified front against what it casts as a fracturing global trading system.
The declaration links three strands of the BRICS economic agenda – opposition to unilateral tariffs, resistance to climate-linked trade barriers and reform of the WTO – into a broader demand for a trading system that gives emerging and developing economies a greater voice and more equitable access to global markets.
For India and other BRICS economies, the issue resonates because several members are major exporters of carbon-intensive goods while still undergoing industrialisation and energy transitions.
The Declaration said the global trading system “has long been at a crossroads” and warned that a proliferation of trade restrictions was threatening global commerce, supply chains and economic growth.
“We voice serious concerns about the rise of unilateral tariff and non-tariff measures which distort trade and are inconsistent with WTO rules,” the declaration said.
It warned that the proliferation of trade-restrictive actions, including “indiscriminate rising of tariffs and non-tariff measures, or protectionism under the guise of environmental objectives,” threatens to “further reduce global trade, disrupt global supply chains, and introduce uncertainty into international economic and trade activities.”
Such measures could also “potentially exacerbate existing economic disparities and negatively affect prospects for global economic development,” the leaders said.
The declaration’s language comes as major economies increasingly use tariffs and other trade measures to protect domestic industries and pursue broader economic and strategic objectives, fuelling concerns over fragmentation of global trade and disruption to supply chains.
While the declaration did not single out any country, the criticism comes amid an aggressive expansion of US tariff policy under President Donald Trump, who has used import duties as a central tool of trade and economic policy. Washington has imposed or threatened tariffs on a range of trading partners and products, prompting retaliation and renewed concerns about supply-chain disruption and trade fragmentation.
BRICS also took explicit aim at climate-linked trade measures – a clear reference to the European Union’s Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism, though the EU was not named.
“We oppose unilateral, punitive, discriminatory and protectionist measures that are not in line with international law, such as carbon border adjustment mechanisms, and express concern that such measures undermine efforts by countries, specifically the developing countries, aimed at addressing the adverse impacts of climate change, increasing adaptive capacity and resilience.”
The language reflects longstanding frustration among BRICS members – several of them major exporters of carbon-intensive goods like steel, aluminium and cement – that CBAM effectively imposes a tariff on their exports to Europe under the banner of climate policy, without recognising their developmental circumstances or providing corresponding transfers of finance and technology.
The bloc said such measures could undermine developing countries’ efforts to respond to climate change.
It said they “undermine efforts by countries, specifically the developing countries, aimed at addressing the adverse impacts of climate change, increasing adaptive capacity and resilience.”
The European Union’s Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism is designed to impose a carbon-related cost on imports in sectors including steel, aluminium, cement, fertilisers, electricity and hydrogen, with the stated objective of addressing carbon leakage and ensuring that imported products face a carbon price comparable to goods produced within the bloc.
Developing countries have argued that such measures can raise the cost of their exports and create additional market-access barriers, particularly for producers with limited access to financing and low-carbon technologies.
On tariffs more broadly, the declaration echoes language first used in the finance ministers’ Mumbai statement and hardens it in places.
Leaders wrote: “We note that the multilateral trading system has long been at a crossroads. The proliferation of trade-restrictive actions that are inconsistent with WTO rules, whether in the form of indiscriminate rising of tariffs and non-tariff measures, or protectionism under the guise of environmental objectives, threatens to further reduce global trade, disrupt global supply chains, and introduce uncertainty into international economic and trade activities, potentially exacerbating existing economic disparities and negatively affecting prospects for global economic development.
“We voice serious concerns about the rise of unilateral tariff and non-tariff measures which distort trade and are inconsistent with WTO rules.”
As in the finance-track statement, no country is named – a deliberate ambiguity that lets the bloc’s members, who range from China and Russia to India and the UAE, sign on to shared language despite very different trade relationships with Washington and Brussels.
The declaration explicitly condemned sanctions regimes. Leaders said: “We condemn the imposition of unilateral coercive measures that are contrary to international law, and reiterate that such measures, inter alia in the form of unilateral economic sanctions and secondary sanctions, have far-reaching negative implications for the human rights, including the rights to development, health and food security, of the general population of targeted states, disproportionally affecting the poor and people in vulnerable situations, deepening the digital divide and exacerbating environmental challenges. We call for the elimination of such unlawful measures, which undermine international law and the principles and purposes of the UN Charter.”
The passage functions as the political backbone for the bloc’s parallel work on payment-system alternatives and reserve arrangements – sanctions exposure, rather than dollar dominance per se, is the throughline the declaration draws between geopolitics and its financial-cooperation agenda.
On institutional reform, leaders devoted one of the declaration’s longest economic passages to the WTO, reaffirming support for “a non-discriminatory, open, equitable, transparent, fair, inclusive, predictable and rules-based multilateral trading system, with the WTO at its core.”
Central to the ask is restoring the WTO’s dispute-resolution machinery, which has been effectively paralyzed since Washington began blocking appointments to its Appellate Body in 2019:
“We strongly advocate for the immediate restoration of an accessible, effective, fully functioning, two-tier binding WTO dispute settlement mechanism as a foundation for trust and predictability for all WTO members, and the appointment of new Appellate Body members without further delay.”
Leaders also endorsed WTO accession bids from Ethiopia and Iran, and credited China with extending zero-tariff treatment to 53 African countries with which it holds diplomatic relations – a pointed contrast the bloc draws between its own trade posture and the tariff escalation it attributes to advanced economies.
The declaration called for urgent need to reform the Bretton Woods institutions – World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) – and demanded they become “more agile, effective, credible, inclusive, fit for purpose, unbiased, accountable, and representative.”
Leaders pressed for implementation of the 16th General Review of Quotas “with no further delay” and called for progress on a 17th review that would realign voting shares toward emerging and developing economies – while insisting that “any voluntary financial contributions should not influence quota allocation, governance representation and voting power,” a veiled objection to wealthier members effectively buying influence through side payments to the Fund.
Beyond formal institutions, the declaration frames tariff pressure as a supply-chain resilience issue.
Leaders wrote that BRICS members “represent a broad diversity of societies and civilisations that are affected differently by unjustified unilateral protectionist measures inconsistent with WTO rules,” and committed to working toward “broader and more equitable participation of developing countries and emerging markets in higher-value added segments of global manufacturing and production” – language aimed at pushing members up global value chains rather than remaining commodity and low-cost-manufacturing exporters exposed to tariff shocks.
Leaders affirmed the need for “reliable, responsible, diversified, resilient, fair, sustainable, and just supply chains of critical minerals,” while insisting resource-rich members keep full sovereign control over their mineral wealth – a nod to members like South Africa and Brazil wary of great-power competition over lithium, cobalt and rare earths needed for the energy transition.
The bloc committed to a GVC Action Plan for 2026-2030 aimed at helping developing members move into “higher-value added segments” of manufacturing, and flagged Special Economic Zones as a shared tool for attracting investment and streamlining trade.
Leaders welcomed the “Jaipur Consensus” to study an Invoice Discounting Mechanism that would let small exporters unlock working capital, plus new Guiding Principles for Credit Assessment Frameworks aimed at closing the finance gap for export-oriented small businesses across the bloc.
The declaration keeps alive the long-discussed BRICS Grain Exchange, a proposed intra-bloc commodity trading platform, with leaders welcoming “continued elaboration of the initiative” and its eventual expansion into other agricultural products.
Leaders backed a “just, orderly, equitable and inclusive” energy transition that still makes room for fossil fuels, especially for developing economies, alongside cooperation on smart grids, hydrogen value chains and critical energy infrastructure protection.
The bloc reaffirmed support for the Kimberley Process certification scheme against conflict diamonds and welcomed an informal BRICS platform with African diamond-mining nations to keep trade flowing.
Members pledged deeper cooperation on competition law – including in renewable energy markets – and progress toward a BRICS-wide standardization agreement, alongside a joint push on AI standards.
Leaders flagged the need to protect IP rights “used in the digital environment, including for artificial intelligence training purposes,” alongside fair compensation for rights holders – an early marker on the AI-copyright debate.
Beyond currency financing, the declaration reiterated support for growing NDB membership and thanked Russia for hosting the bank’s 11th annual meeting in Moscow in May.
Members agreed to continue a Joint Statistical Publication and deepen cooperation among Supreme Audit Institutions, both aimed at building shared data infrastructure and governance credibility.
