In a message to the council, Guy Sebban, Secretary General of ICC, recalled that, like ICC, it was founded to promote world trade and further peace. Both organizations were created after world wars, ICC after the first, USCIB after the second.

Mr Sebban said that USCIB has, over the decades, made a huge contribution to ICC’s work in support of the GATT/World Trade Organization to open up world markets and establish sound multilateral trading rules. USCIB, he said, was now “lending its voice, clear and strong, to help us push governments the world over to get the Doha Round on track for a successful conclusion next year.”

Mr Sebban congratulated Lee Raymond on receiving USCIB’s 2005 International Leadership Award. In his speech at the New York dinner, Mr Raymond, Chairman and Chief Executive of ExxonMobil, said that there was “no quick fix, no silver bullet” for solving energy problems. Long-term investment plus a commitment to research and new technologies was the answer. Nor did he believe that a country could be independent over energy, rather than pursuing a policy of global interdependence. “We are all in this together,” he said.

Other speakers at the dinner included William Parrett, Chairman of USCIB and Global Chief Executive of Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu, one of the four big accountancy firms in the world, and John Bolton, the United States Permanent Representative to the United Nations.