Zimbabwe eyes BRICS membership as experts say bloc’s expansion will boost African trade

Zimbabwe eyes the membership of BRICS grouping, hoping this would enhance the country’s opportunities for free trade with other member states, with experts saying that the African continent would benefit from the BRICS expansion to include five new countries from Africa and the Middle East.

Speaking at a recent BRICS international forum in Vladivostok, Zimbabwe’s Defense Minister, Oppah Muchinguri-Kashiri, announced that the southern African country is prepared to become a member of the grouping, as this has the “potential to counterbalance Western powers’ dominance by challenging their unilateral decision-making and promoting a more balanced global landscape.” It came less than two weeks after Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa reportedly discussed the possibility of his country’s joining the BRICS with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin at St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF).

The expansion of the BRICS membership in January to include Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), offers African countries an opportunity to trade value-added and intermediate goods with the world and move away from the trade in raw commodities, experts told a recent BRICS roundtable in Nairobi. The new formation, dubbed BRICS+, accounts for around 40% of crude oil production and exports, 25% of global GDP, about 40% of global trade in goods, and nearly half of the world’s population, according to the Boston Consulting Group (BCG).

Despite initial skepticism, “over the years, these nations have been drawing nearer to each other economically. Trade in goods among BRICS economies has considerably outpaced trade between the BRICS and G7 nations, leading to greater intra-BRICS trade intensity,” a BCG report stated.