Globalization
a powerful force for economic progress
Paris, 19
June 1997 - The ICC
recommended to governments attending the Denver Group of Seven summit in June
that they push for early completion of international negotiations on financial
services and for a multilateral agreement on investment.
The ICC's annual statement
to the summit also said that governments and business should do more to explain
the benefits of globalization, too often perceived in the public mind as a threat.
"Globalization is a powerful force for raising living standards across
the world. It is bringing unprecedented opportunities to billions of people."
The statement, delivered
to each of the heads of state and government attending the Denver summit, put
forward a programme for further liberalization of trade and investment.
The ICC congratulated the
summit governments for their leadership in bringing about the recent agreements
in the World Trade Organization on liberalizing trade in basic telecommunications
and to eliminate customs duties on information technology products by the year
2000.
Comparable leadership was
needed in financial services, a sector of crucial interest to business everywhere.
The aim should be "a comprehensive and truly multilateral agreement based
on a substantial improvement in the quality and quantity of market-opening commitments."
The financial services negotiations were resumed in April and are due to be
concluded by the end of this year.
Business expressed disappointment
that negotiations under the auspices of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation
and Development (OECD) on a Multilateral Agreement on Investment (MAI) were
not completed in time for the May ministerial council of the OECD.
Pressing the Denver summit
governments to take the lead in ensuring early completion of the investment
agreement, the ICC said: "Business attaches major importance to such investment
factors as the protection and remuneration of intellectual property, freedom
to organize capital structures and to take a local partner, the absence of performance
requirements, and competition policy that does not discriminate against foreign
investors."
The ICC called on the summit
governments to respect the WTO's strengthened multilateral dispute settlement
mechanism, which it described as crucial to the organization's credibility and
authority. "That mechanism...will remain vulnerable so long as major WTO
members continue to flirt with unilateral trade sanctions and the extraterritorial
application of national laws," the ICC said.
The statement concluded
with an appeal for governments and business to work together more closely to
design multilateral rules for the worldwide market place, which the ICC said
were increasingly necessary for the smooth functioning of globalization. "Globalization
is a business-driven phenomenon, and business has now become a natural partner
of governments to help them in this task," the ICC said.
Full
statement