A new trade round; business affirms its support

New trade round will be good for business worldwide

Paris, 7 November 2001 - Strong worldwide business support for the launch of a new round of multilateral trade negotiations at the Doha ministerial conference of the World Trade Organization emerged today from an opinion survey covering 77 countries.

The International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) and the Munich-based Ifo Institute for Economic Research jointly polled more than 520 business executives and economists. Their replies stressed the economic advantages flowing from more open trade.

Respondents from every region agreed that the greatest single benefit for business in their countries of agreement to liberalize world trade further would be the opportunities stemming from improved market access. Stronger economic growth in general was also widely cited as a major plus.

Other advantages identified by business executives in both industrialized and developing countries were a boost to business confidence and increased foreign direct investment.

In contrast, respondents feared that failure in Doha would inhibit growth of both exports and foreign investment, and many considered that the consequence would be domestic job losses.

Jean-René Fourtou, ICC Vice-President and Group President, Aventis, said: "These results demonstrate that ICC's campaign for more open markets has strong grassroots business support in all parts of the world. We do not intend to relax pressure on governments to deliver results. "

Mr Fourtou, who is ICC Vice-President, said satisfying developing country demands for improved access to world markets would be crucial to success at the WTO ministerial meeting. He said these concerns emerged clearly from comments received from business leaders in the developing world.

An Ifo summary of the conclusions said: "Particularly, export-oriented countries in western Europe, the US, New Zealand and also Asian and Latin American countries expect a strong negative impact on their trade balances in case of a failure of the WTO meeting."

Responses identified the two biggest threats to the multilateral trading system as a world economic slowdown and "the failure of politicians and opinion-formers to understand the benefits stemming from multilateral trade liberalization over the past half century," the summary said.

Participants were invited to add their own comments. Respondents from some developing countries heavily dependent on agriculture said they expected success to bring more open agricultural markets and the suppression of subsidies in the United States and the EU. Many feared a return to protectionism in the event of failure.

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