The BRICS Competition Law and Policy Centre and China’s Center for Competition Policy and Expertise of the State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR) have announced a strategic collaboration to develop a BRICS commodities exchange system. The agreement was formalized on the sidelines of the 2024 National Fair Competition Conference of China.
Alexei Ivanov, Director of the BRICS Competition Law and Policy Centre, highlighted the significance of the collaboration. “It is symbolic that two years after the agreement between Russia and China on antitrust enforcement and competition policy, we are now finalizing a memorandum of expert cooperation during Russia’s BRICS presidency,” Ivanov remarked.
The cooperation will focus on research and development of exchange trade mechanisms for commodities and raw materials between Russia, China, and other BRICS countries. Ivanov explained that modern exchange platforms could establish direct, long-term business relationships and reduce prices by eliminating intermediaries. The research will involve creating a framework of organizational, legal, and economic measures to facilitate exchange trade within the BRICS framework.
Meng Yang, Vice Minister of SAMR, expressed China’s commitment to enhancing BRICS cooperation. He emphasized the importance of coordinating working groups on competition in key markets and ongoing projects such as studying competition issues in the biosimilars sector.
Both parties agreed to conduct joint studies to promote competition tailored to the needs of emerging economies within BRICS and to exchange information on their activities. The forthcoming BRICS summit in Kazan, scheduled for October, is anticipated to further advance these initiatives and strengthen the cooperative efforts in competition law and antitrust policy.
As Russia chairs the BRICS+ in 2024, the focus remains on implementing the BRICS Economic Partnership Strategy 2025 and the Action Plan on Innovation Cooperation for 2021-2024, with a particular emphasis on advancing competition law and antitrust policy.
