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BRICS nations meet for talks to counter US protectionism

Updated Sep 8, 2025, 6:47am EDT
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Leaders of the BRICS group in July.
Leaders of the BRICS group in July. Ricardo Moraes/Reuters.

BRICS countries meet virtually today to discuss the impact of US tariffs, yet another sign of shifting global trade alliances in response to Washington’s deepening protectionism.

The meeting of the bloc of mostly developing nations comes as South Korea mulls joining the CPTPP, a pan-Pacific free trade group, while European officials head to New Delhi for talks on deepening economic ties and India looks to tighten technological cooperation with Singapore.

New data, meanwhile, showed that Chinese exports to the US plummeted again, but sales elsewhere surged. “The rest of the world has mostly continued to trade on normal terms,” Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, the director-general of the World Trade Organization, wrote in the Financial Times. “The system is showing resilience.”

A chart showing BRICS’ share of global GDP.
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