Mobilzing global business
The ICC World Trade Agenda initiative was launched during its 1st policy conference at WTO Headquarters to begin defining trade negotiation priorities from the perspective of the private sector and move multilateral trade talks ‘beyond Doha’ to address the increasingly important trade policy issues, such as trade and climate change, trade and exchange rates, trade and export controls , etc.
Input was also sought through an open and broad-based consultative process with
business leaders and experts in ICC's global network. A series of regional
consultations were organized to solicit input on
the initial policy recommendations to help define a broadly-shared agenda of
business priorities for presentation to governments. In addition to the extensive input from global business, ICC built on its policy content through research papers such as that prepared by the Peterson Institute for International Economics, in consultation with intergovernmental organizations and governments.
The result of the year long initial phase was the finalized set of business priorities that were publicly released during the World Trade Agenda Summit in April 2014 in Doha, held under the patronage of the Minister of Economy of Qatar. The Summit, hosted by Qatar Chamber, provided an opportunity for more than 800 business leaders to discuss and endorse the World Trade Agenda business priorities to WTO governments. The business priorities are also being fed into the G20 process to further make the case for multilateral trade and investment.
The 2nd phase of the World Trade Agenda initiative is to mount a campaign targeting key WTO members to achieve one or more agreements at the 9th WTO Ministerial Conference, in Bali, Indonesia from 3 to 6 December 2013. Business leaders in ICC's global network will meet with key policymakers and interested stakeholders to convince national governments to pursue negotiations to reach a series of multilateral agreements. A 3rd phase for the World Trade Agenda initiative will be a policy conference in Doha in April 2014 to assess progress to date. A post-Bali action plan will be discussed and agreed at the conference, for implementation during 2014.
Achieving tangible outcomes by Bali 2013
Business understands that to achieve tangible
outcomes by the 9th WTO Ministerial Conference in 2013 in Bali, a
balanced set of issues needs to be put forward to WTO members to be signed into
agreement. The five business priorities
below represent a possible set of issues that could be agreed upon by the Bali
Ministerial.
Appreciating that these are business priorities, ICC
fully supports progress being made by WTO members in other areas in the
DDA. Specifically, in addition to ICC’s
support for an immediate agreement on agricultural export subsidies, ICC also
supports improving agricultural market access - for developing country
agricultural products in particular -, and eliminating or substantially
reducing trade-distorting subsidies.
1. Conclude a trade
facilitation agreement
2. Implement
duty-free and quota-free market access for exports from least-developed
countries
3. Phase out agricultural export subsidies
4. Renounce food export restrictions
5. Expand trade in
IT products and encourage growth of e-commerce worldwide
Completing the Doha Development Agenda to advance “beyond Doha”
Improving
global trade rules and achieving greater liberalization through negotiation is
an essential function of the WTO. Unless
WTO members are able to successfully discharge this function collectively by
completing the DDA, one of the key roles of the institution – that of providing
an effective forum for multilateral trade negotiations – will be called into
question. As a result, the WTO’s dispute
settlement system will be placed under increasingly strain should rule making
and trade liberalization occur through adjudication rather than
negotiation. In such circumstances, ICC
is concerned that the two main pillars of the rule-based multilateral trading
system would be significantly weakened.
ICC is committed to a strong and effective WTO, one whose members
collectively negotiate the lowering of trade barriers and the strengthening of
global trade rules.
1. Liberalize
trade in services
2.
Multilateralize trade liberalization under the WTO framework
3. Foster
‘greener’ economic activity through trade
4. Move towards a
high-standard multilateral framework on investment
5. Reform the WTO
Dispute Settlement System