(Yicai Global) Sept. 5 -- Yu Guangzhou, the director-general of China's General Administration of Customs, signed the Strategic Framework of BRICS Customs Cooperation with other BRICS representatives on Sept. 4 in the southeastern Chinese city of Xiamen, state-owned news agency Xinhua reported.

The document specifies "information exchange, mutual recognition of supervision and mutual assistance in law enforcement" as principles in the cooperation, and confirmed trade facilitation, security and law enforcement, emerging affairs, capacity building and coordination within a multilateral framework as priorities for BRICS.

BRICS is the collective term used to refer to five developing economies, Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.

The group will use the World Trade Organization's Trade Facilitation Agreement to simplify trade, and believes it needs to improve intelligence and data exchanges and cooperate in risk control to enhance security and law enforcement across the countries. Digital customs and the Framework for BRICS Single Window Cooperation will need to be set up for emerging affairs, while the group will develop a strategic framework to improve capacity and coordination.

Yu proposed the strategic plan in 2016 at the Meeting of the BRICS Customs Directors-General in Goa, India, and all parties endorsed it, the report adds.

The value of import and exports between China and other BRICS countries reached CNY1.15 (USD176 billion) trillion in the first seven months, up 32.9 percent on the year and growing 14.4 percent faster than overall growth of China's foreign trade. Exports grew 28.7 percent to hit CNY587 billion while imports leapt 37.7 percent to CNY562 billion, giving a trade surplus of CNY24.7 billion.