Summary: The New Delhi Declaration adopted at the 18th BRICS Summit signals progress on customs cooperation and regulatory alignment, but its real test lies in whether it can deliver lower tariffs, fewer non-tariff barriers, and faster market access for exporters. This blog examines why India should pursue targeted tariff liberalisation and regulatory interoperability through the BRICS platform, and what a credible, phased trade architecture could look like, without compromising domestic industry or geopolitical balance.
The adoption of the New Delhi Declaration at the 18th BRICS Summit marks a significant move towards multi-polarity in geopolitics and global governance within an increasingly fragmented world economy. Yet, beneath the diplomatic vocabulary, lies a more consequential question: Can BRICS convert its collective economic weight into trade that is not merely larger, but easier and more predictable?
This will be measured by the convenience of future trade, the concessional customs duties payable under bilateral and multi-lateral trade agreements, the time taken to secure regulatory approval, and the inspection frequency of future consignment. For BRICS, the next frontier is market access. Lower tariffs, fewer non-tariff barriers, and customs systems that distinguish between risk and routine commerce.
India’s merchandise trade with BRICS members has expanded. In FY 2025–2026, BRICS partners accounted for nearly 42 per cent of India’s merchandise imports but only around 22 per cent of its exports. These figures should not be read as a balance-of-trade statistic but as a market-access diagnosis.
Customs cooperation is an important first step
The New Delhi Declaration records convergence on a BRICS Agreement on Cooperation and Mutual Administrative Assistance in Customs Matters, with members ready to proceed towards signing after completion of domestic processes. The Declaration also backs the Authorised Economic Operator (“AEO”) Action Plan 2026, which includes information exchange, capacity building, and working towards mutual recognition of AEO programmes.
It could become a commercial advantage. Mutual recognition of AEO programmes could enable a trusted trader recognised by one customs administration to receive corresponding facilitation in another. Properly implemented, this could mean fewer inspections, faster release of consignments and lower exposure to demurrage and detention. Time is not merely a logistical variable; it is a cost. Consignment delays can disrupt a production line, compromise a seasonal sale, trigger contractual penalties, or erode margins.
The first BRICS Joint Customs Enforcement Operation conducted during India’s chairmanship is a significant step towards deeper cooperation. Greater exchange of customs intelligence can help authorities identify undervaluation, misclassification, origin fraud, and smuggling while allowing legitimate trade to move with fewer interventions.
Tariff reduction is the missing piece
Customs facilitation has its limits. A shipment cleared in hours instead of days is still commercially unattractive if it enters the market burdened by a high import duty.
The Declaration expresses serious concern over the rise of unilateral tariff and non-tariff measures that distort trade and are inconsistent with WTO rules.
BRICS does not currently operate as a conventional free trade area. An Indian exporter may still face the applicable tariff in a member market unless separate preferential arrangement applies.
Even a five or ten percentage-point duty difference can determine whether an Indian manufacturer wins a contract, whether a pharmaceutical product can compete with a local substitute, whether an engineering component is sourced from India or elsewhere, or whether a regional supply chain is built around BRICS markets at all. Tariff reduction often determines whether diplomatic ambitions will translate into commercial outcomes.
Instead of negotiating an all-encompassing free trade agreement, India should use the BRICS platform to pursue targeted tariff liberalisation. A comprehensive BRICS-wide FTA may be politically and legally difficult, given the diversity of participating economies, domestic sector sensitivities, and differing tariff schedules and trade policies.
A practical starting point would be to focus on products with demonstrable complementarity, including critical minerals, industrial inputs, machinery, pharmaceuticals, electronics components, renewable-energy equipment, and selected agricultural and engineering goods. Members could identify tariff lines of mutual interest and progressively reduce or eliminate duties, while preserving safeguards for genuinely sensitive sectors.
This approach would allow BRICS to proceed through a modular architecture of concessions and enable governments to test the commercial effects of liberalisation, identify pressure points, and refine the framework before expanding its scope. It would also be more meaningful than repeatedly calling for greater trade while leaving the cost of entering each other’s markets untouched.
Non-tariff barriers can undo tariff concessions
Tariff reduction alone is insufficient. A lower customs duty is of limited value if the exporter must still navigate technical standards, testing and certification requirements, labelling rules, licensing conditions, sanitary and phytosanitary measures, and product-specific approvals before securing market access.
For MSMEs in particular, these requirements are not peripheral; they dictate market entry.
At the BRICS Business Forum, Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal urged members to open their markets, simplify regulatory procedures, and accelerate customs clearance, while highlighting non-tariff measures as a major impediment to trade. BRICS may be able to make faster and more practical progress here than through a conventional tariff negotiation.
Mutual recognition of conformity assessments, acceptance of accredited laboratories, common digital documentation standards, and greater transparency around proposed regulatory changes could reduce the cost of entering partner markets without requiring countries to harmonise their entire regulatory systems. A product should not have to undergo the same test in multiple jurisdictions because the testing laboratory, certification format, or documentary requirement is unfamiliar to the importing administration. The objective need not be identical regulation. It should be regulatory interoperability.
Rules of origin require equal discipline. If preferential tariffs are eventually introduced, predictable and commercially workable origin rules will be indispensable. Overly complex origin requirements can make a nominal tariff preference practically unusable.
From a Declaration to a BRICS trade architecture
The New Delhi Declaration presents an opportunity, but its commercial value will be measured by implementation.
A phased programme of tariff concessions, accompanied by customs cooperation, mutual recognition, and reduction of non-tariff barriers, could provide a realistic and credible route towards meaningful economic integration.
A preferential arrangement will need clear schedules, transparent eligibility conditions, workable rules of origin, safeguards against trade diversion, and consultation and dispute-resolution mechanisms.
The test of the New Delhi Declaration will not be how many initiatives it announces. It will be whether an Indian exporter can sell a product in another BRICS country with lower duty, fewer regulatory hurdles, and faster customs clearance. That is the standard by which the Declaration should be judged.
Expected potential barriers
It is also pertinent to note that the New Delhi Declaration comes at the peak of the competition between the United States and China and when China is flexing its economic muscles to manoeuvre its way around. India should seek cooperation from its partners in BRICS but not at the cost of antagonising the western economies. Similarly, providing a low duty-free economy might usher in significant imports getting pushed to the Indian market, raising questions about the ability of Indian industry as well as economy to sustain such pressure.
Hence, India has to move swiftly, but cautiously. It should be open to trade from other BRICS countries, while ensuring the protection of Indian manufacturing setups. The Government definitely has its tasks cut out and it remains to be seen how things unfold in the coming days.
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