NEW DELHI — Union Minister of Commerce and Industry Piyush Goyal and Minister of External Affairs Dr. S. Jaishankar addressed the Opening Session of the BRICS Business Forum in New Delhi on September 11, 2026.
Occurring on the eve of the 18th BRICS Summit under India’s 2026 Chairship, the leadership called for deeper, resilient, and balanced intra-BRICS trade partnerships. Key proposals focused on local currency settlement, cross-border digital payment integration via UPI, regulatory simplification, and supply chain diversification.
Executive Trade Strategy & Ministerial Directives
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Market Access & Non-Tariff Barriers:
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Called on BRICS member and partner nations to open markets for raw materials, critical minerals, and industrial goods while eliminating non-tariff measures.
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Urged faster clearance of consignments and simplified regulatory procedures to lower export costs.
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Financial & Digital Integration:
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Advocated for linking national payment systems across BRICS members and expanding trade settlement in local currencies.
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Highlighted India’s Unified Payments Interface (UPI) handling over 250 billion annual transactions (50%+ global volume share across 11 partner countries) as a scalable model for cross-border digital trade.
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Sectoral Cooperation Framework:
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Agriculture & Agritech: Proposed linking agritech startups across member states to bolster food security.
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Services & Professional Mobility: Called for genuine service market access, mutual recognition of professional qualifications, and streamlined cross-border movement of skilled professionals.
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Manufacturing & Value Chains: Positioned India’s capabilities in engineering, electronics, automobiles, and pharmaceuticals (“pharmacy of the world”) as pillars for resilient intra-BRICS supply chains.
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Technology & Innovation Frameworks (MoS Jitin Prasada):
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Highlighted Semiconductor Mission 2.0 (with USD 13 billion in incentives) for collaborative semiconductor ecosystem development.
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Urged joint AI governance centered at the UN and shared infrastructure for compute access across the Global South.
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Intra-BRICS Economic Metrics (Commerce Secretary Rajesh Agrawal):
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Intra-BRICS trade expanded from USD 84 billion in 2003 to nearly USD 1.2 trillion in 2024, representing nearly one-fourth of global trade.
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Proposed the BRICS Connect platform, an annual BRICS Trade and Investment Expo, and MSME working capital support based on the Jaipur Consensus.
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