Kagame attends BRICS Summit in South Africa

PresidentPaul Kagame is in South Africa to participate at the BRICS Leaders’ Summit which is taking place From Wednesday to Friday 27th July 2018.

This website earlier reported that BRICS Leaders (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa) meet from Wednesday to Friday for an annual summit in Johannesburg, where the Donald Trump “trade war” should dominate the debate.

BRICS countries denounce in June the “protectionism” of the United States that “undermines global growth”.

Officially, the 10th summit will be held in the presence of Russian Presidents Vladimir Putin, Chinese Xi Jinping, Brazilian Michel Temer, South African Cyril Ramaphosa and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

In recent months, US President Donald Trump has declared war on his main commercial rivals with Beijing, Brussels and Moscow in the lead.

After tariffs on steel and aluminum mainly targeting China, the United States now threatens to overtax European car imports, to punish countries trading with Iran and to punitively tax all Chinese imports.

The US Government also in the recent move declared trade war against Rwanda and other East African Countries who hiked taxes on used clothes many of which start as US charity donations and have long been a staple of wardrobes in Rwanda.

Their abundance and popularity have stalled development in the local clothing industry, according to officials.

Rwandan President Paul Kagame has said the duties are needed to boost local producers and prevent his country from being used as a “dumping ground” for used American clothes. He has proposed banning imports by 2019.

The restrictions have upset traders in the United States.

The Secondary Materials and Recycled Textiles Association, which represents companies that sell used and recycled clothing, filed a complaint with the US government in 2017 arguing that the trade barriers put thousands of American jobs at risk.

Following a review, the Office of the United States Trade Representative warned in March that it would suspend some benefits that Rwanda had under the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), which allows sub-Saharan African countries to export to the United States without facing tariffs. Rwanda would, for example, lose the right to export duty-free apparel to the United States.

In this context of US Trade wars, China has called for stronger cooperation among the Brics.

“This year, the Johannesburg summit is of particular importance for the cooperation of the Brics given the new circumstances,” said Xi Jinping on Tuesday during a state visit to South Africa.

The trade dispute between the United States and their partners threatens “global growth” in the short term, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) warned last week.

It harms “all members of the Brics”, who suddenly have “a collective interest in promoting trade” between them, confirms Sreeram Chaulia, Dean of the School of International Relations of Jinda in India.

This expert cites as an example the response of the European Union (EU), which has signed a preferential free trade agreement with Japan in retaliation for US policy.

For its part, Russia sees in this trade war a good reason to develop trade in national currencies between the countries of the Brics.
Apart from leaders of BRICS, many heads of state, mainly African, are expected at the summit, including Rwanda’s President Paul Kagame, Angolan Joao Lourenço, Ugandan Yoweri Museveni and Turkish Recep Tayyip Erdogan.”

Turkey has been invited as President of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC).