The International Chamber of Commerce (ICC), the world business organization which USCIB represents in the United States, is urging G20 governments to put trade and investment at the heart of their Action Plan for Growth and Jobs in response to the outcomes of the Cannes G20 Summit.
“Trade has lifted millions out of poverty over the past 60 years by stimulating economic growth and job creation,” said ICC Chairman Gerard Worms. “At a time when governments are grappling with excessive debt, a new approach to trade negotiations can be a cost-free stimulus to growth and job creation.”
The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) estimates that for every 10 percent of trade that opens among G20 countries, around one million jobs are created.
ICC was encouraged by the G20’s recognition of “the merits of the multilateral trading system,” and its reaffirmation of its commitments to the Doha Development Agenda mandate and to avoid introducing new protectionist measures. G20 leaders acknowledged the current stalemate in multilateral trade negotiations and that the Doha Round would not be concluded under current negotiating rules.
The G20 recognized the need to “pursue in 2012 fresh credible approaches to furthering negotiations” and it “directed its ministers to work on such new approaches” at the upcoming ministerial conference of the World Trade Organization (WTO) in December in Geneva. It also encouraged the ministers to “engage into discussions on the challenges and opportunities to the multilateral trading system in a globalized economy” and to report back at the next G20 Summit in June 2012 in Los Cabos, Mexico.
Read more on ICC’s website.
