On April 18, 2025, the BRICS Forum on Economic and Trade Activities was held in Beijing under the theme “Standardization Cooperation for Trade Development, BRICS Partnership Empowering the Global South.” During the forum, the BRICS Action Plan on Trade Development and Standardization Cooperation (2025–2026) (hereinafter referred to as the “Action Plan”) was officially released.

With the vision of “Better Standards for Better Trade, Better Trade for a Better World,” the Action Plan aims to deepen standardization cooperation among BRICS countries. It seeks to promote trade facilitation, sustainable development, and industrial innovation, contributing to the creation of a more sustainable, inclusive, and resilient “Big BRICS Cooperation.”

In response to the complex and evolving global economic landscape, the Action Plan focuses on key areas and outlines five core objectives. It emphasizes:

  • Promoting information sharing and mutual recognition of standardsto reduce technical barriers in goods, services, cultural, and digital trade, thereby enhancing trade facilitation in BRICS countries;
  • Leveraging international standards, technical regulations, and voluntary sustainability standardsas technical foundations to accelerate the implementation of the Sustainable Development Agenda and promote coordinated economic, social, and environmental development;
  • Promoting the “Codes of Good Practice for Sustainability Systems”of  ISEAL Alliance to encourage the adoption of credible and effective sustainability standards;

Note: ISEAL stands for ‘International Social and Environmental Accreditation and Labelling’. 

  • Advocating for the establishment of a “Global Sustainable Standards Day”to raise awareness and visibility of sustainability in standardization;
  • Enhancing standardization capacitiesthrough training and project cooperation, while encouraging BRICS countries to take a leading role in developing and revising standards in international standardization organizations such as ISO, IEC, and ITU, as well as de facto standardization Developing bodies like the Organization for the Development of Cooperation in Trade and Standards (ODCCN).

These initiatives aim to strengthen BRICS’ influence in global rulemaking and inject new momentum—”BRICS energy”—into global economic governance.

To realize its cooperative vision, the Action Plan outlines a series of implementation pathways. BRICS countries will establish a multi-dimensional collaborative mechanism, centering around the Organization for the Development of Cooperation in Trade and Standards (ODCCN). This includes:

  • Establishing the “ODCCN BRICS Cooperation Committee (ODCCN/BCC)”to coordinate BRICS efforts in trade and standardization;
  • Building a shared information platform or dedicated sectionfor BRICS trade and standardization, leveraging existing resources such as the Global Trade Helpdesk (established by the UN International Trade Centre) and org (developed by the WTO Informal Working Group on MSMEs);
  • Coordinating standard development, technical exchanges, and talent cultivation, accelerating alignment in key technical areas;
  • Deepening standard alignment in priority sectorsby institutionalizing annual standardization conferences and industry-specific working group meetings;
  • Jointly initiating proposals in emerging areassuch as the digital economy and sustainable trade;
  • Gradually eliminating trade barriersthrough mutual recognition of cross-border technical regulations;
  • Strengthening standardization capacity-buildingby holding regular BRICS seminars and training programs on trade and standardization cooperation, aimed at enhancing the overall standardization level across BRICS countries and supporting deeper economic and trade collaboration.

Standards are the cornerstone of trade and a technical tool for global economic governance. The release of this Action Plan marks the wish of China on a new phase in which BRICS countries will leverage standardization cooperation as a key driver to jointly improve multilateral trade rules and promote trade development. It represents a collective effort to offer a “BRICS solution” for the restructuring of global supply chains, technological transformation, and sustainable development—contributing to the creation of a more resilient and inclusive world economic order.