Settle current rows and launch new trade round,
business tells G7
German
version
Bonn, 20
May 1999 – World
business today urged the G7/G8 summit nations to take speedy action to resolve
current trade disputes and create a climate of goodwill for the expected new
round of multilateral trade negotiations.
In a statement delivered to German Chancellor Gerhard
Schrder, host to the summit of the world’s leading industrial nations
in Cologne next month, the International Chamber of Commerce said a new trade
round would send a positive signal to traders and investors the world over.
ICC welcomed the commitment of the Group of Seven
governments to launching the new round at the ministerial conference of the
World Trade Organization in the US city of Seattle in November. (Russia, which
will participate in the Cologne summit, is not a member of the WTO.)
The business statement said a new round "will
make a significant contribution to restoring confidence in the prospects for
the recovery of the world economy in the wake of the emerging markets crisis".
The ICC message emphasized the importance of bringing
the new round to a successful conclusion "within a relatively short period
of time." It added: "There must be a firm commitment to avoid repetition
of the damaging delays that characterized the Uruguay Round.
"Multilateral rule-making has to adapt itself
to the faster pace of change in a global
marketplace in order to keep the rules
aligned with rapidly-evolving business realities and requirements."
ICC said that today’s world was very different
from when the Uruguay Round, was launched in 1986. "The focus of the new
round must be on a much broader concept of market access - on the international
rules for business companies to compete freely and on equal terms in a global
marketplace. Inevitably, extending the scope of market access will entail the
development of further multilateral disciplines on national regulatory regimes."
ICC President Adnan Kassar, Chairman of Fransabank
Group, Lebanon, led the delegation of business leaders that called on Mr Schrder
at the Federal Chancellery in Bonn. ICC national committees in the other G7
nations meanwhile delivered the statement to their respective governments.
The ICC delegation included the three members of
the ICC presidency. Besides Mr Kassar, they were Richard D. McCormick, Chairman
emeritus of US WEST, the Denver-based telecommunications and data networking
company; and Helmut O. Maucher, Chairman of Nestl. With them were Ludger W.
Staby, Supervisory Board member of Reemstma Cigarettenfabriken and Chairman
of ICC Deutschland; and ICC Secretary General Maria Livanos Cattaui.
ICC is the world’s leading business organization
with members in 137 countries. Each year as a prelude to the G7/G8 summit, its
Presidency personally delivers a message on behalf of world business to the
leader of the host nation.
ICC said world business urged governments to assign
the follow strategic priorities for the new trade round:
- to further liberalize trade in services;
- curb substantial protectionist measures impeding
trade in agricultural products;
- further reduce and eliminate tariffs;
- push forward the process of creating within
WTO multilateral rules to liberalize and protect foreign direct investment,
including longer-term equity capital;
- develop WTO-consistent criteria for the use
of trade measures contained in multilateral environment agreements;
- address the threat that eco-labelling schemes
could become de facto trade barriers;
- elaborate comprehensive multilateral rules to
simplify and modernizes trade procedures, and especially inefficient and costly
customs procedures;
- extend the membership, sectoral coverage, and
transparency provisions of the existing plurilateral agreement on government
procurement.
The business statement said the emerging markets
crisis had underlined dramatically the need for much closer cooperation among
governments – and between governments and business – for effective
multilateral rule-making.
"Crucial to enabling the benefits of globalization
to spread to all mankind is the maintenance of peaceful conditions between and
within sovereign states. The absence of political conflict is a precondition
for local entrepreneurship to flourish and for foreign business to invest."
The statement said the current mood of cautious
optimism on financial markets should not be allowed to slow the momentum behind
international efforts to draw lessons from the emerging markets crisis. It should
not delay the introduction of reforms to prevent any repetition of a systemic
threat to global finance and world economic growth on so dangerous a scale.
ICC said foreign direct investment had played a
major stabilizing role in the recent crisis. "It is in the strong interest
of emerging markets to avoid measures that might deter the expansion of FDI
inflows and jeopardize mutually-beneficial long-term partnerships."
Commenting on the economic potential now being
opened up by communications and information technologies, the ICC statement
said governments must be careful not to stifle the process by over-regulation
of the Internet and additional taxation of electronic commerce.
Full
text of ICC statement
Full
text of ICC statement (French version)
The Commission on International Trade
and Investment Policy