"The biggest threat to a revolution in emerging market trade may be the emerging markets themselves as Brazil slaps import curbs on Chinese toys, Russia claims China dumps cold-rolled steel and China keeps its currency undervalued.
Such barriers to commerce are digging potholes in the "New Silk Road," the name given by economists to the burgeoning trade between developing nations that is forecast to be larger than that among advanced nations by 2015.
No Fraternity?
"There's not much evidence of a BRIC fraternity," said Evenett, noting that the four BRIC nations were among the eight most protectionist in the Group of 20. Russia, which is still lobbying for membership of the World Trade Organization, was No. 1. China, Brazil and India are WTO members.
The annual competitiveness report of the Geneva-based World Economic Forum shows that each of the BRIC nations has higher average trade tariffs than at least 110 other countries, including Nigeria and the Kyrgyz Republic. Tariff rates in 2009 ranged from Russia's 11.6 percent to India's 14.4 percent.
Reducing barriers to trade would reinforce the so-called New Silk Road, a modernization of the name given to the 4,000- mile (6,435-kilometer) network of trade routes crisscrossing Asia, southern Europe and North Africa starting 2,000 years ago. Once traveled by Marco Polo, the route helped promote the growth of civilizations from Egypt to Rome"............READ MORE
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