ICC World Trade Agenda:

Feeds into B20 policy

Sanjeevi Jayasuriya

Business recommendations from the ICC Business, the World Trade Agenda (WTA) will feed into proposals made by the B20 task force on trade and investment which International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) is chairing.

The ICC launched the WTA initiative at the World Trade Organization (WTO) Ministerial Conference recently, ICC Sri Lanka Chairman Tissa Jayaweera told Daily News Business .

ICC looks forward to achieving new milestones in the B20 process in 2012, he said.

The aim of the WTA is to provide ongoing business recommendations to governments on a multilateral trade agenda for the 21st century. The first meeting of business executives under the WTA is taking place on March 13-14 at WTO headquarters in Geneva. Business priorities on multilateral trade will be defined drawing on input from this initial meeting and subsequent global consultations.

The WTA is formulated to carry programmes for two years.

ICC will play a leading role in preparations for the G20 Business Summit (B20), to be hosted this year by Mexican President Felipe Calderon in Los Cabos, June17-18.

ICC will be working alongside the World Economic Forum (WEF), combining the strengths of ICC networks to create sound policy.

The official launch meeting of the Mexican B20 organizing committee was chaired by Mexican business leader Alejandro Ramirez and co-hosted by Finance Minister Jose Antonio Meade and Economy Minister Bruno Ferrari. Over 150 Mexican business leaders and senior government representatives attended the meeting.

ICC and WEF have been mandated to coordinate the work of the eight task forces, which will focus on: food security, green growth, employment, trade and investment, advocacy and impact, transparency and anti-corruption, ITC and innovation, and financing growth and development. ICC is coordinating the trade and investment task force and CEO members of the ICC G20 Advisory Group are participating in all of the B20 task forces, which will use recommendations from Cannes as a starting point.

ICC is very encouraged by the support the Mexican government is giving to the B20 process. President Calderon has committed to devote a government Sherpa to each B 20 task force, so as to closely integrate business expertise into the G20 process. The resulting policy proposals will be submitted to President Calderon during the WEF Latin American Summit to be held in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico on April 16-18, he sid.

"Based on the success of G20 regional consultations around the world last year, ICC has begun to pencil in new dates for this year, starting with Istanbul on March 5, followed by a consultation focused on trade finance and the G20 in conjunction with the ICC Banking Commission in Doha on 27 March. We are also working with ICC Russia and ICC China to host regional consultations during April and May.

These consultations continue to provide valuable opportunities for ICC member companies and national committees to engage on the G20 policy agenda," he said.