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Coronavirus pandemic

BRICS leaders call on WTO members to ensure targeted anti-COVID measures

The leaders of BRICS states welcomed strengthening international cooperation in all these sectors

MOSCOW, November 17. /TASS/. The leaders of the BRICS countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) have called on the member-states of the World Trade Organization (WTO) to ensure that the restrictive measures related to combating the coronavirus pandemic are targeted and temporary. This is according to the text of the Moscow Declaration of the BRICS Summit, published on the Kremlin's website on Tuesday.

"We call on all WTO members to ensure that all COVID-19 related measures are targeted, proportionate, transparent and temporary and do not create unnecessary barriers to trade or disruption to global supply chains, and are consistent with WTO rules," according to the document.

The leaders of BRICS states welcomed strengthening international cooperation in all these sectors.

"We will continue to explore concrete ways to facilitate the movement of people in a way that does not impede our efforts to protect public health," the declaration notes.

Besides that BRICS leaders reiterated the importance of open, stable and secure global markets and acknowledged the building of more resilient global supply chains for increased production of critical health, food and other industrial and agricultural products at the national level and in our respective regional contexts, consistent with WTO rules.

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