The BRICS Contingent Reserve Arrangement

金砖国家应急储备安排

     The New Development Bank is the BRICS counterpart to the World Bank.  The BRICS counterpart to the IMF is arguably the BRICS Contenting Reserve Arrangement (“CRA”) established in 2015.  As I understand it, the CRA is essentially a US dollar swap arrangement between central banks, much like the Chiang Mai initiative established in 2000.  Members of the CRA effectively pool part of their US dollar currency reserves,  so that any member may swap their respective domestic currency for US dollars.  It’s really a facility to borrow US dollars (up to a specified limit and presumably subject to a reasonable interest charge).  

     Both the CRA and Chiang Mai initiative can never match the US Federal Reserve swap arrangements that is granted to American allies.  This is because the US Federal Reserve can never run out of US dollars.  Whereas the CRA and Chiang Mai initiative each has a limited US dollar reserve pool.  

     The CRA and Chiang Mai initiative assume that international trade has to be settled in US dollars.  But this does not need to be the case, especially when the international trade is between members of the BRICS nations and their partners or (in the case of the Chiang Mai initiative) between members of ASEAN.

     As countries of the Global South increasingly move away from the US dollar to settle international trade (at least among themselves), their need for US dollars will progressively decrease.  So a reasonable extension of the CRA (and the Chiang Mai initiative) is to create an alternative set of swap-cum-settlement arrangement, under which the members commit to:

1. settle international trade among themselves in the currency of (say) the exporter; and

2. swap their respective domestic currencies, so that members can borrow each other’s currencies to pay for imports if they are short of foreign currency reserves for whatever reason.

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     新发展银行（NDB）是金砖国家（BRICS）于世界银行的相当对应机制。于国际货币基金组织（IMF）的BRICS对应机制，可以说是2015年建立的BRICS应急储备安排（“contingency reserve arrangement”，CRA）。据我了解，CRA本质上是央行之间的美元互换安排，根据2000年建立的清迈倡议（Chiang Mai initiative）一样。CRA成员国有效地汇集了它们部分的美元储备，任何成员都可以将各自的本国货币，互换成汇集美元。现实上，这是一种借入美元的机制（在指定的限额内，并且可能被收取合理的利息）。

     CRA和清迈倡议都无法，与美联储授予美国盟友的互换安排，相媲美。这是因为美联储永远不能耗尽美元；而CRA和清迈倡议各自的美元储备池有限。

     CRA和清迈倡议都假定国际贸易必须以美元来结算。但这情况非一定如此，特别是当BRICS国家及其伙伴之间发生的国际贸易，或（清迈倡议而言）东盟（ASEAN）成员之间时。

     随着全球南方国家（Global South）越来越不再必须用美元来结算国际贸易（至少的是它们之间的贸易），他们对美元的需求将逐渐减少。因此，CRA（以及清迈倡议）的合理延伸是创建一套替代性的互换兼结算安排；在该安排下，成员承诺：

（1）当结算它们之间的国际贸易时，运用（比如）出口国家的货币来；并且

（2）互换他们各自的本币，以便各成员国家，因任何原因出现外汇率储备短缺时，能借用彼此的货币来支付进口品的费用。