Press Trust of India:

My question is about economic cooperation under the BRICS mechanism. Trade and economic cooperation is a core component of the BRICS cooperation. We are both new emerging market countries, but in recent years, we can see that many BRICS countries have trade deficits between them. For example, China and India are facing such problems.

You two are from think tanks. In your opinions, what progress has been made in resolving the issue of bilateral trade deficits? What measures can we take to promote the resolving of the deficit issue and push forward fairer trade? The problem I say isn't just within the framework of the BRICS countries; it goes even beyond the WTO framework to a larger scope. What are your opinions?

Moreover, we now are saying the BRICS cooperation has entered a new era for the next decade. How do you expect this issue to be resolved in the future?

Ye Fujing:

Thank you very much for your question. In order to answer it, I think, first we should go beyond specific issues, and look at how the BRICS countries deal with the challenges we are facing at a higher level and within a wider range. We should resolve the particular issues existing in the economic and trade cooperation under this overall framework.

We need to consider whether there is a very strong impetus to enhance cooperation. We should stand at this strategic level to look at the necessity of further strengthening the BRICS cooperation, and tackle the challenges together. We should know that it is very normal for countries, including the BRICS countries, to have various problems between them. It will be abnormal if there's no challenge. The key is not challenges, but how to respond to the challenges.

We should not only view it in terms of challenges, but also see if the favorable elements for dealing with challenges are increasing. In my opinion, over the past decade of BRICS cooperation, the good factors in our cooperation haven't reduced but increased significantly.

The challenges we are facing are not more severe than in the past, but much easier for us to deal with. This is a very basic judgment. In the past years, the achievements we have made were so profound in our hearts. China and India, as well as other countries under the BRICS framework, and all those developing and developed countries, all benefit from the cooperation and have received rewards. This is an irreversible and important foundation of our cooperation.

Another important factor exemplifying the efforts of China and India to promote globalization should be our resolve to uphold the core value of multilateralism around the world.

We see some challenges facing China or India. To be more specific, they include getting the financial sector more deeply involved in the real economy, immature measures currently available to prevent financial risk, and the need for broader opening of financial markets. However, these challenges can also be considered as emerging opportunities to foster bilateral cooperation between China and India, as well as multilateral cooperation among BRICS members and other developing countries.

Problems like trade deficits can become minor and unimportant details if we take a panoramic view of development, which can be blamed on insufficient or unexplored opportunities for cooperation, rather than cooperation itself being the cause of the troubles. We will solve those problems through development and cooperation enhanced with investment and trade in commodities and services. At the same time, other problems can also be resolved if we underscore the importance of mutual openness, mutual cooperation and friendly relations.

Zhou Qiangwu:

I'd like to say a bit more on the issue. First, the trade among five BRICS countries is immense. The trade between China and India hit more than US$70 billion last year and the volume between China and Russia and China and Brazil also reached enormous proportions. It is nothing unusual to witness some trade disputes among the BRICS countries because frictions arise even among full brothers.

Second, I cannot agree more with what Director Ye has said in regard to viewing trade frictions and trade deficits in the context of development. However, I would like to add one more point, that every time when we want to solve trade frictions, we'd better work them out through dialogues rather than abuse of the trade remedial measures available, which may cause the economic and trade relations to turn sour among BRICS members.

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