ICC remains committed to WTO’s multilateral trade efforts

Global businesses represented by the International Chamber of Commerce said they remain committed to continued improvements and enhancements to the multilateral trade system that are supported through the World Trade Organization (WTO).    Global businesses say they remain committed to continued improvements and enhancements to the multilateral trade system that are supported through the World Trade Organization (WTO).
   “We firmly believe that strong and sound multilateral trade policies are vital to secure our common economic and societal objectives, and encourage all WTO members to make the necessary commitments to enable trade as an engine of growth and prosperity for all,” the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) said at the first Business Forum held alongside the WTO Ministerial Conference in Buenos Aires this week.
   “Trade openness, underpinned by the expansion of the multilateral trading system, has brought about higher productivity, greater competition, lower prices, and improved living standards,” the ICC added. “For consumers, open trade has led to wider choices and lower prices of many goods and services—benefiting in particular lower-income households who consume a disproportionately higher share of tradable goods and services.”
   The ICC also endorsed the WTO’s long-standing work to fight against trade protectionism.
   “Protectionism is not a path to progress and we urge WTO members to agree on a standstill and rollback of trade distorting measures in contravention of multilateral disciplines,” the group said.
   In addition, the ICC voiced its support for the WTO’s process for settling disputes between member countries as a “powerful tool for enforcing rules regarding tariffs and other conventional trade measures, as well as those regarding subsidies and other ‘behind-the-border’ measures that can distort trade.”
   The ICC’s members made a series of recommendations to the WTO going forward, such as quickly implementing the Trade Facilitation Agreement (TFA). The WTO secured enough country member ratifications to bring TFA into force in February.
   Full implementation of the TFA, which was designed to streamline customs burdens, is expected to reduce WTO members’ trade costs by an average of 14.3 percent, with developing countries having the most to gain, according to a 2015 study by WTO economists. 
   The TFA is expected to reduce the time needed to import goods by more than a day and a half and to export goods by nearly two days, which represents a reduction of 47 percent and 91 percent respectively over the current average, according to the global trade body. The WTO forecasts that once fully implemented that global trade will increase by $1 trillion annually.
   The ICC also emphasized to the WTO the need to improve cross-border trade for e-commerce, particularly for small companies which are heavily reliant on the Internet to build their businesses.
   “Global business believes that there is a unique opportunity for WTO members to launch new negotiations on e-commerce to foster an open and trusted global ecosystem that better enables MSMEs (micro, small and midsize enterprises) to access global markets by leveraging new technologies,” ICC said.
   Measures should include enhanced connectivity and capacity building in developing economies, simplify and expedite the clearance of small e-commerce shipments, and lower costs in destination markets for remote, small traders.
   During the Business Forum, WTO Director-General Roberto Azevêdo announced that the World Economic Forum and Jack Ma, the founder and executive chairman of Alibaba Group, who also represents the Electronic World Trade Platform, started a new collaboration on “enabling e-commerce.”
   “Jack and I share a vision of an Internet for all; of e-commerce as a real opportunity for smaller players, entrepreneurs and regular citizens,” Azevêdo said. “That is precisely what this new initiative is all about. It will create a high-level dialogue to deepen the debate on e-commerce, with the aim of ensuring that the benefits of e-commerce are available as widely as possible.”
   The WTO is also working with the UN Conference on Trade and Development and International Trade Center to develop a web portal that consolidates all information needed to export.
    “So if you want, for example, to export beef from Buenos Aires to Beijing, all it takes is a few clicks to get the information you need, covering rules, regulations, tariffs, sanitary requirements and so on. This is a tremendous initiative, but it’s also a work in progress. We need members to keep providing information to help in this effort,” Azevêdo said.
   The ICC also agreed with the WTO on the necessity for new, near-term disciplines for fishery and agricultural subsidies.
   “The successful conclusion of an agreement on illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing would represent concrete, collective action towards achieving SDG 14, and, moreover, provide positive momentum towards a more comprehensive agreement on fisheries subsidies,” the ICC said.
   “With regard to agriculture, global business supports the efforts of WTO members to determine a landing zone for domestic support subsidies, including a permanent solution on public stockholding for food security purposes, and enhancing transparency and reporting requirements on export restrictions,” the chamber added.