BRICS-under the rotary presidency of Brazil, since January 1-will advance the use of local currencies to carry out financial operations related to trade and investments carried out by the group’s member countries. The goal is to reduce the costs of emerging nations business-financial operations.
The confirmation was given by the Secretary of Economic and Financial Affairs of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MRE), Mauricio Lyrio, on Friday (21), in conversation with journalists in Brasilia. The secretary is Brazil’s chief negotiator at BRICS, indicated to coordinate the work with the function of “Sherpas” (a word of Tibetan origin used to call the climbing guides).
“It’s something that has been developing at BRICS since 2015 and we have continued to advance, because the use of local currencies is already usual in bilateral trade among BRICS members. Several members already use local currencies in their bilateral trade, which will continue during the Brazilian presidency, ”he said.
According to Lyrio, the payment system in local currencies is among the priorities of the regional powers this year that will be debated next Tuesday (25) and Wednesday (26), among the main negotiating leaders representing the 11 nations members of the block.
They are: Brazil, Russia, India and China, South Africa. In January 2024, they joined the group as full members: Egypt, United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Ethiopia and Iran.
The Itamaraty Secretary justified that, at this moment, BRICS will not discuss the creation of a common currency for the block. “There are no agreements on the subject and also because this process is very complex. They are big economies. This is not an easy -to -manage topic, and obviously there are other ways to reduce operating costs. It has to do with the internal logic of BRICS ”.
Secretary Mauricio Lyrio stated that the position of not discussing a common currency is not related to statements by international authorities. Recently, the new US President Donald Trump has threatened member countries with 100% tariffs on their imports if the group seeks alternative dollar in international negotiations.
The diplomat did not rule out the possibility of BRICS heads of state discussing the adoption of a common currency in the future. “Nothing prevents presidents from discussing the possibility in a more distant horizon.”
Sherpas Brasileiro also stressed that BRICS was born with the vocation of reinforcing multilateralism to solve problems and reform global governance. “Reform so that she [governança global] becomes more democratic, more inclusive, more representative in these same countries. ”
Priorities
Next week meetings will serve to present to the BRICS Sherpas the other priorities of Brazil in charge of the group, as well as the use of local currencies to perform financial operations.
The themes will be aligned to until BRICS State Heads Summit, scheduled to take place on July 6 and 7, in Rio de Janeiro.
The five priorities that will be brought to the two -day meeting are: health cooperation, financing actions to combat climate change; BRICS trade, investment and finance; Governance of Artificial Intelligence; and BRICS institutional development.
The meeting will be opened on Tuesday by the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mauro Vieira, in the Itamaraty Palace, in the federal capital. There is also the possibility of a special session with speech by President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva to participants, on the second day of the event.
