General Info

I actually did a small paper on BRICS for class last year. I've learned some more information since that has confused me a little.
It's questionable as to whether BRICs/BRICS is a legitimately formed trading bloc, or just an arbitrary name given to the emergin nations as separate countries. Some American economists take credit for the name as simply that: a name. However, when I did my paper I took to be a serious trading bloc like that of the EU. I found out that these countries are working together as separate units: Brazil-China, India-Brazil, China-Russia, China-South Africa, etc etc. So I believe that while some economists may refer to them as simply the emerging nations that will become important trading partners, I believe them to be what may become a trading bloc as powerful, if not more so that the European Union rather than single countrieas acting individually like the United States.
(Aren't we sooo lonely ... haha)
I can't attach my paper, but I am going to sum it up in this post. The paper is by no means a masterpiece, it's short and pretty unorganized, but it's the information that's important .

My paper began as an analysis on trade between Brazil and China. My father had told me about how Chinese ships would rest offshore and produce consumer goods on board, then transport them to Brazil to avoid taxes, and Brazil seemed fine with it. I wanted to look into their trade a little more and discovered that it's become more than just simple consumer goods.
According to BBC News in 2004, there was a G3 group that had been named as trading partners: Brazil, India, and South Africa. Brazil was hoping to expand that into China and Russia (hence BRICS). One thing I've found interesting is that when American economists talk about BRICS, they lowercase the "s" making it plural for BRIC instead of including South Africa. I don't totally understand that since my research has lead me to believe that South Africa is actually a part of the group.
Thanks to info from both the New York Times and the Iemba Newsletter, I found out that Brazil and China had been spending a lot of time and money expanding trade between the two. Both have large populations with increasing demand in consumer goods and would like to expand into eachother's markets. Lula even spent a week or so in China with a number of his country's top businessmen to sort out some trade miscommunications. Brazil and China are working together to remove their dependence form the United States. Period. Enter Russia: Russia and China have been working together to upgrade their military. They've been co-operating in exercises and joint-ventures inceasing money put into their military power. Venezuela may even be added into the mix soon as Russia has agreed to help them develop their military as well. India has been having issues with Pakistan, whom we support, which may cause them to join with Russia and China.

That's some generic information I have on BRICS and I hope I can get some more information soon enough

Links:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/3756635.stm
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/11/20/international/americas/20amazon.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
http://internationaltrade.suite101.com/article.cfm/brazil_s_trade_buddies
http://www.iemba.com.br/newsletter/fev_2005/BrazilArticle%20-%20Robin%20Raafat.pdf
http://www.indiadaily.com/editorial/1627.asp
http://www.marketoracle.co.uk/Article347.html

So let's try making some connections ....
If China's labor is rising, and we will probably stop using their nation to produce so many of our consumer goods, what will this do for BRICS?
I'm thinking the possibility of labor movement. If these nations -particularly Brazil, China, and Russia- are working so much to increase trade, maybe higher wages in China will attract more workers to their country. Maybe this allow for a very easy flow of labor from Brazil and Russia into China. What will that then do to Brazil and Russia? Will they hurt from this movement if it happens? Will China raise their prices with rising income against trade with Brazil and Russia? Will this trend destroy BRICS? Or raise it up?
Is this increase in wage even worth any attention?