The Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) on Friday said it has reservations and concerns about the tangibility of gains that could emerge from South Africa’s membership to the Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa (Brics) grouping of emerging market economies.

Commenting on the recent Brics summit, in China, the union said the country’s joining of the former Brazil, Russia, India, China (Bric) group, earlier this year, was an important step towards global economic and political equity.

Further, it welcomed the opportunity presented by any initiative towards the strengthening of South-South relations and solidarity in a world dominated by a few rich northern countries.

However, Cosatu pointed out that the former Bric group was made up of emerging economies with sizeable populations, very high growth rates and stronger manufacturing and industrial capacities than that of South Africa.

“That on its own is not the problem, but experience has taught us what that can potentially do, in, for example, the case of the South African textile industry and Chinese companies. The cost-benefit analysis and the prevailing balance of payments seem to suggest the possible dangers of this form of engagement, unless we take all necessary steps to mitigate them now.”

The union stressed that South Africa needed to further clarify its agenda and guard against such realities and its effects on workers, their families and the country in general.

It also welcomed the fact that joining Bric presented South Africa with a chance to act as a counterweight in international relations, to the hegemony and dominance of the US and the EU.

“However, the agenda for transforming the global multilateral system must not be about integrating these countries into the undemocratic monopoly club of the powerful, to the exclusion of the world’s majority of developing countries,” the union asserted.

It further called for South-South relations that go beyond individual countries to include all the countries and people of the developing world to effectively represent the interests and aspirations of all concerned.

“We need to clarify how the rest of the continent stands to benefit from such an arrangement, if we are to avoid isolating ourselves from the continent and its people, but also to continue an agenda that reflects the urgency of developing our continent and its people,” the union said.

Cosatu expressed hope that the Brics summit would be used as an opportunity to present a bold agenda on the environment and support a legally binding framework in Durban during the seventeenth Conference of the Parties climate change talks later this year.

It also hoped that the summit would develop a clear and firm response to the trade offensive driven by multinational companies through the US government in the build-up towards the resumption of the Doha trade negotiations.