The International Chamber of Commerce (ICC), the world business organization for which USCIB serves as the American national committee, warmly congratulated Ambassador Roberto Carvalho de Azevedo of Brazil on his selection as the new director general of the World Trade Organization (WTO).
“The global business community congratulates Roberto Azevedo on his appointment,” said ICC Chairman-elect Terry McGraw, the CEO of McGraw-Hill Financial who also serves as chairman of USCIB. “We welcome Mr. Azevedo’s extensive experience in international economic affairs, and we pledge to work with him and his colleagues at the WTO to achieve even greater advancements in global trade to the benefit of all nations and their citizens, We also want to express our special thanks to Pascal Lamy for his tireless service as director general.”
ICC and the Qatar Chamber of Commerce and Industry launched the World Trade Agenda initiative at the WTO in March 2012. Its aim is to mobilize the business community in support of harvesting results on trade facilitation and other elements of the Doha Round negotiations at the 9th WTO Ministerial Conference in Bali this coming December.
ICC has undertaken an intensive program of consultations over the past year, reaching out to ICC’s network of 6.5 million companies in 130 countries.
The Peterson Institute for International Economics in Washington, D.C. recently quantified the potential benefits from ICC’s recommendations in a report entitled Payoff from the World Trade Agenda 2013. It found that by simplifying customs procedures – through trade facilitation measures – alone, member countries would deliver global job gains of 21 million, with developing countries gaining more than 18 million jobs and developed countries increasing their workforce by three million.
The World Trade Agenda was launched in response to calls from WTO members and from G20 leaders for fresh approaches following an 11-year impasse in multilateral trade negotiations. Business recommendations from this initiative will be delivered to G20 leaders and WTO ministers ahead of both the G20 Summit in Saint Petersburg and the Bali WTO Ministerial Conference.
Read more on the ICC website.
Staff contacts: Rob Mulligan and Shaun Donnelly
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