GENEVA, Switzerland,– The BRICS Coordination Committee on Antimonopoly Policy held a significant meeting on July 2, 2024, in Geneva, under the Russian Chairmanship. This event brought together heads of competition authorities from BRICS nations—Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa—alongside new members Iran, Ethiopia, Egypt, and the UAE.
The meeting underscored BRICS’ commitment to fostering a competitive environment that benefits businesses and consumers alike. The Russian delegation proposed the launch of an enhanced cooperation platform to institutionalize and deepen the BRICS partnership towards an inclusive, diverse, and just economic order. This initiative, named the BRICS Global Action Platform on Fair Market Competition, was developed by the BRICS Competition Law and Policy Centre.
Support for Enhanced Antitrust Cooperation
The proposal received widespread support from antitrust agency representatives, who expressed their approval to advance the institutionalization of antitrust cooperation. The BRICS Centre pledged intellectual resources to facilitate the launch of this Action Platform.
The meeting also addressed the procedure for new member countries to join the Memorandum of Understanding on Cooperation in the Field of Competition Law and Policy of the BRICS countries, originally signed on May 19, 2016, in St. Petersburg. Attendees shared significant results from their respective competition authorities, highlighting progress in promoting fair competition practices and tackling antimonopoly issues.
A key outcome of the meeting was the adoption of a Joint Statement by the Heads of the BRICS Competition Authorities, consolidating efforts to maintain healthy competition in socially significant markets.
Future of BRICS Antitrust Cooperation
Alexey Ivanov, Director of the BRICS Competition Law and Policy Centre, remarked, “During the Russian presidency, taking into account the BRICS expansion, a window of opportunity opens, allowing antitrust cooperation in the BRICS format to reach a new qualitative level. This will include joint investigations into the activities of international cartels, global monopolies, and economic concentration transactions.”
Ivanov emphasized that the proposed Action Platform’s core function is to assist competition authorities by providing technical and analytical support, as well as fostering expertise and research on competition policy among member states. The ambition is to establish a BRICS-focused center of expertise for knowledge creation and sharing in the global market of ideas, which is currently dominated by Western legacy institutions.
Strategic Vision for Global Economic Influence
Ivanov further elaborated, “This platform, if implemented, will allow antitrust regulators of the BRICS countries to more actively influence the global architecture of economic relations. It represents a mechanism for harmonizing positions on how to jointly influence the global economy, markets, and value chains.”
He noted that the BRICS governments have already supported the idea of creating a grain exchange, and this initiative is part of a broader strategy for integration and agreement facilitation in various sectors. Ivanov concluded, “Oversight of industries organized in global value chains requires an approach nested in a three-dimensional, value chain perspective as opposed to narrow, geographically bound markets.”
The meeting concluded with a renewed sense of collaboration and strategic vision, setting the stage for future advancements in antitrust cooperation among BRICS countries and their new members.
