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As Chinese President Xi Jinping arrives in New Delhi for the 18th BRICS Summit opening, trade is emerging as one of the key areas where the expanded grouping is looking for tangible results. Intra-BRICS merchandise trade reached $1.17 trillion in 2024, having increased more than 13-fold since 2003, according to UNCTAD (United Nations Trade and Development) data. But how much further that number can rise, and whether the bloc can turn its economic size into deeper trade between members.
The Trillion-Dollar Mark Has Already Been Crossed
The intra-BRICS merchandise trade has already crossed $1 trillion. The $1.17 trillion figure for 2024 represents trade among the member economies, not the total value of their combined global exports and imports.
The figure has grown more than 13 times since 2003, showing the rapid expansion of commercial links within the grouping.
The wider BRICS trade footprint is considerably larger. In 2025, the bloc’s members exported goods worth $5.67 trillion, equivalent to 21.6% of global exports, while their imports stood at $4.58 trillion, or 17.3% of global imports. Together, the members recorded a merchandise trade surplus of about $1.09 trillion.
That scale gives BRICS a substantial base from which to expand trade within the bloc. But it also exposes that a relatively small proportion of the members’ overall trade is actually with one another.
A Huge Market, But Not Enough Trade Between Members
According to Global Trade Research Initiative (GTRI) data, BRICS countries exported around $1.1 trillion worth of goods to fellow members, equivalent to 18.8% of their combined exports. They imported about $1.4 trillion from fellow BRICS economies, or 29.5% of their total imports.
The imbalance is even clearer when measured against global trade. Intra-BRICS exports account for only about 4.1% of world exports, while intra-BRICS imports represent 5.4% of world imports. In other words, the members are major trading powers globally, but their trade relationship with one another still has considerable room to grow.
China sits at the centre of the intra-BRICS trade network. It exported $550.8 billion worth of goods to other BRICS members and imported $464.9 billion from them. The concentration is also visible in India’s numbers.
India’s $226-Billion Problem
India’s trade with BRICS more than doubled from $203.1 billion in FY2021 to $417.5 billion in FY2026. But the expansion has been heavily tilted towards imports. Indian exports to BRICS rose 48.8%, from $64.3 billion to $95.7 billion, while imports jumped 131.8%, from $138.8 billion to $321.8 billion. The result was a trade deficit of $226.1 billion, up from $74.5 billion five years earlier.
China accounted for the largest share of India’s BRICS imports, with purchases rising from $65.2 billion to $131.6 billion. Imports from Russia climbed more than tenfold, from $5.5 billion to $55.4 billion, largely because of energy purchases. The UAE supplied another $63.9 billion. China, the UAE and Russia together accounted for nearly 84% of India’s imports from BRICS.
That makes the question of expanding intra-BRICS trade more complicated for India. Higher trade volumes alone would not necessarily be a gain if imports continue to rise much faster than exports.
The Next Growth Engine May Not Be Traditional Goods
One route identified by The Global Times is to move beyond conventional merchandise. The newspaper points to services, digital trade and green industries as areas that could provide the next major push.
Global trade in digitally delivered services has already exceeded $4.5 trillion, accounting for 54.2% of total services trade, according to the figures cited by the publication. BRICS members have complementary strengths: China has a large manufacturing and digital infrastructure base, India is a major exporter of IT and digital services, and Brazil has a rapidly expanding cross-border e-commerce sector.
Green industries offer another potential avenue. China’s new energy manufacturing capacity, India’s solar and green infrastructure market and South Africa’s renewable energy requirements could create supply-and-demand links within the bloc.
Payments, Supply Chains And Market Access
For trade to expand, however, the physical exchange of goods and services is only one part of the equation. BRICS members are also looking at cross-border payments and greater use of national currencies. Finance ministers and central bank governors met in August to discuss facilitating cross-border payments and strengthening national currencies.
Supply-chain cooperation could also help. The Global Times argues that the New Delhi summit can build on previous BRICS initiatives by deepening industrial and supply-chain collaboration, potentially making production networks among members more resilient.
“The New Delhi summit may present a crucial opportunity to convert these scattered sources of potential into concrete results. Much of the consensus reached in past BRICS cooperation has been translated from ideas into actions at successive summits. The New Delhi summit can continue along this proven path by further deepening industrial and supply chain collaboration among members and building a more resilient, self-reliant, and secure industrial system,” said a Global Times op-ed piece.
For India, the immediate challenge is market access. GTRI has called for better access to China, Russia and Indonesia, action against non-tariff barriers and a shift towards higher-value exports. Without stronger exports, deeper intra-BRICS trade could simply widen India’s existing deficit.
“India should seek better market access in China, Russia and Indonesia, address non-tariff barriers, promote higher-value exports and reduce excessive dependence on a few BRICS suppliers. Without stronger export growth, deeper intra-BRICS trade could further widen India’s already large trade deficit,” GTRI founder Ajay Srivastava said.
The next phase will depend on whether the scale translates into more trade among members — through lower barriers, stronger supply chains, digital and services trade, green industries and easier cross-border payments.
BRICS members account for around half of the world’s population and roughly 40% of global GDP, while their merchandise exports represent more than one-fifth of global exports. For India, the test could be whether a larger BRICS trading network can generate more markets for its exports rather than simply more sources of imports.
An industry report released ahead of the summit estimates India’s exports to BRICS could reach $200 billion by 2030, more than double the roughly $96 billion recorded in 2025-26.
The BRICS 2026 summit in New Delhi therefore arrives with the trillion-dollar milestone already achieved. The bigger task could be now turning that number into a more balanced and broader trading relationship across the expanded bloc.
