BRICS to Dismiss IMF and WTO: What’s next?

At the upcoming BRICS summit in Kazan scheduled for October 2024, a significant focus will be on reforming international financial institutions, particularly the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Trade Organization (WTO). Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has underscored the urgency of these discussions, emphasizing that such reforms are crucial for enhancing global economic governance and ensuring it better reflects the growing influence of emerging economies. The BRICS nations are advocating for changes that align the governance structures of the IMF and WTO with contemporary economic realities. They contend that these institutions remain skewed in favor of developed nations, marginalizing the Global South. Among their key demands are adjustments to the IMF’s quota system to grant more influence to developing nations and the revitalization of the WTO’s dispute settlement mechanism, which has been paralyzed for years. This conversation arises amidst long-standing dissatisfaction with the IMF and WTO, as their policies have frequently been seen to exacerbate economic challenges in borrowing nations. In particular, IMF loans have often been tied to conditions that force countries to implement austerity measures and remove subsidies, leading to widespread unrest in nations such as Egypt, Brazil, Morocco, and Venezuela, among others.