ICC's mission

ICC was founded in 1919 out of the ashes of World War I to promote trade and investment as a vehicle to spread peace and prosperity. In keeping with this historic mission, the WTA initiative will mobilize ICC's global business network to help set a trade policy agenda adapted to 21st century trade realities.

Consulting business around the world

The initial World Trade Agenda recommendations will be refined into final proposals by April 2013 through an open and broad-based consultation process with business leaders in ICC's global network. Through a series of high-level regional consultations, such as the World Business Leaders' Conference in Beijing, ICC and its partner the Qatar Chamber of Commerce and Industry will solicit input on these initial recommendations and will seek to define what world business considers to be possible gains to the global economy. By identifying a sets of issues that can be harvested from the Doha Round of negotiations, ICC and the Qatar Chamber will push for multilateral agreements that will provide a debt-free stimulus worth billions of dollars for the world economy and generate much needed jobs.

ICC and its business network will continue to provide input to governments in the lead up to the next WTO Ministerial Conference in Bali, Indonesia in December 2013.

Five initial recommendations

Global support

ICC has been leading the global business community with initiatives, including the ICC World Trade Agenda and the ICC G20 Advisory Group, which encourage dialogue between business and government in a bid to establish practical policies for opening trade and investment. ICC has been encouraged by the expressions of support it has received from the World Trade Organization (WTO) and the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) for the WTA initiative. The WTA business priorities will also feed into the G20 policy process, with the aim of strengthening the trade and investment policy component of the G20 agenda.