South Africa’s participation in the BRICS bloc is facing renewed scrutiny as the country’s trade deficit with its BRICS partners continues to widen, prompting calls for a more ambitious and structured economic agenda.
The Agricultural Business Chamber of South Africa (Agbiz) has warned that South Africa’s trade deficit with BRICS partners has expanded by $9.6 billion (around R157 billion), underscoring what it describes as deep structural weaknesses in intra-BRICS trade. According to Agbiz, the bloc’s economic promise remains largely unrealised despite its growing geopolitical visibility.
Agbiz chief economist Wandile Sihlobo said the problem is not BRICS membership itself, but the absence of a coherent trade framework.
“BRICS remains a loose, informal grouping with no sound economic or trade approach that keeps the countries together,” he noted, arguing that the solution lies in raising the bloc’s economic ambition rather than abandoning it.
China remains the main exception, accounting for South Africa’s most substantive BRICS trade relationship. Even there, Sihlobo believes untapped potential remains, particularly in agriculture and value-added sectors. “We see higher tariffs remaining on various products within the BRICS… little is happening within the grouping beyond political matters,” he said.
Without a free trade agreement, BRICS countries continue to trade more intensively with partners outside the bloc, especially in Europe and the Americas. Sihlobo stressed that South Africa cannot afford an “either-or” approach. Instead, it must preserve Western trade ties while pushing for deeper BRICS integration and new investment flows.
Echoing this view, Dr Stavros Nicolaou of the BRICS Business Council said cooperation with China is already reshaping South-South trade.
“Our cooperation under the Belt and Road Initiative shows that emerging economies can lead with innovation, inclusivity, and purpose,” he said, highlighting South Africa’s growing role as a gateway for Chinese investment into Africa.
As global trade tensions intensify, Agbiz argues that BRICS’ long-term sustainability will depend on whether its members can transform political alignment into tangible economic outcomes.
