*{Business and the global economy
ICC statement on behalf of world business to the Heads of State and Government attending the Okinawa Summit      21-23 July 2000 [http://www.iccwbo.org/home/statements_rules/statements/2000/g8_statement.asp]

French version

Business and the global economy

Paris, 9 June 2000 - The International Chamber of Commerce (ICC), the world business organization, is pleased to present this statement to the Heads of State and Government attending the G8 Summit in Okinawa, Japan (21-23 July 2000). The statement addresses several key issues of particular concern to world business.}

*partie=titre 1. The global economy: an opportunity, not a threat *partie=nil

World business, as represented by ICC, believes strongly that the global economy is the most powerful force for raising living standards across the world. Indeed, it has already brought unprecedented advances in material welfare to billions of people. Business accepts that it has an indispensable role to play, together with governments, in explaining the benefits and opportunities that flow from a readiness to adapt creatively to the change necessary to embrace the world economy. The fears and misconceptions must be dispelled. Business will work with governments to promote change and support their efforts to establish the good governance necessary to allow all countries to participate in the gains from globalization.

Freedom can only work within rules, and the same holds true for markets. Global markets require global rules, and a balance between freedom and rules needs to be achieved for the smooth functioning of the market economy and the good management of globalization.

Business and governmental rule-setters must respond to the most important challenge of today: the emergence of the global knowledge economy and the opportunities it opens to spread more widely the benefits of globalization. The UN, multilateral development agencies, and governments should give special attention to capacity-building in least developed countries, particularly as regards human resources development, physical infrastructure and institutional reform, to assist them to link themselves into the global information society. Business will support these efforts, which offer the best assurance that all countries will be able to participate in and benefit from the global economy.

The maintenance of peaceful conditions between and within sovereign states is crucial to enabling the benefits of a global economy to spread to all mankind. The absence of political conflict is a precondition for local entrepreneurship to flourish and also for international business to invest.

*partie=titre 2. Innovation, technology and development *partie=nil

Business believes that the freedom to research and innovate is one of the main engines of economic growth and job creation. Technological advances have been one of the key driving forces in the history of human progress.

Major advances in communications and information technologies are opening up a huge potential for improving economic efficiency through electronic commercial transactions. They are also creating valuable tools for enhancing the capacity of developing countries and economies in transition to integrate themselves into the global economy and share in the benefits of globalization. In parallel, new technologies in agriculture, biotechnology and life sciences are holding out the promise of dramatic improvements in human nutrition - especially in developing countries with rapid population growth - and in health care.

For these reasons, business has become seriously concerned at what we perceive to be a growing public fear of, and even outright hostility to, a number of today's leading-edge technologies and their impact on people's lives.

Business recognizes the need for an informed dialogue to ensure that genuine public concerns are addressed. We urge governments to play their roles in ensuring a balanced public debate, and particularly to underline the importance of risk assessment based on sound scientific enquiry. We also believe that it is vital for governments to cooperate closely in developing a common approach to health and safety standards and regulatory requirements in order to accelerate the global diffusion of new technologies and reduce the potential for further trade conflicts.

*partie=titre 3. International trade policy post-Seattle *partie=nil

World business deeply regrets the lack of political will, including on the part of G7 governments, which resulted in the dramatic failure of the Seattle ministerial conference of the World Trade Organization (WTO) to launch a new round of multilateral trade negotiations. Moreover, ICC remains gravely concerned at the large number of high-profile trade disputes among members of the G7 that are currently being allowed to sour international trade relations further and that are weakening the authority and effectiveness of the WTO and its dispute settlement system.

Despite the damaging setback at Seattle, world business continues to urge that the launch of a new broad-based round of multilateral trade negotiations under the aegis of the WTO must be a top priority on the international economic agenda. A start has already been made with the launch of new negotiations on trade in services and agriculture, as mandated by the Uruguay Round. These must be advanced expeditiously, and expanded at an early date to cover a significantly broader trade agenda to improve the prospects of achieving a balanced result that all WTO members can subscribe to. It is the responsibility of the powerful countries represented at Okinawa to give leadership and impetus to this task, and to communicate more effectively to their general publics the benefits of trade and investment liberalization.

ICC recommends that a new round should:
improve market access, especially for developing countries, by further reducing tariffs and introducing effective restraints on non-tariff barriers; 
prevent abusive resort to anti-dumping measures; 
push forward the process of creating within the WTO high-standard multilateral rules to protect and liberalize the conditions for foreign investment; 
expand and improve commitments on trade in services reached during and since the Uruguay Round, including trade in basic telecommunications, financial services and the movement of natural persons; 
make a start in the WTO on liberalizing maritime transport, air cargo, and postal and express delivery services; 
speed up reduction of substantial protectionist barriers that impede and distort trade in agricultural products - barriers that are particularly damaging to the export capability of many developing countries; 
break down barriers to electronic commerce and make permanent the moratorium on customs duties on electronic transmissions; 
develop comprehensive and effective multilateral rules to simplify and modernize trade procedures, and in particular customs procedures; and 
facilitate the integration of least-developed countries into the multilateral trading system.
 
*partie=titre 4. Non-trade issues for the UN *partie=nil

The WTO-based multilateral trading system should not be called upon to deal with such non-trade issues as human rights, labour standards and environmental protection. To do so would expose the trading system to even greater strain and the risk of increased protectionism while failing to produce the required results. The right place for addressing these issues is the UN and its appropriate specialized agencies.

Business recognizes that the implementation of the rules and disciplines of the multilateral trading system can sometimes have a significant impact on other policy areas. We would therefore welcome a more coordinated collaboration between the WTO and other intergovernmental organizations with different but related policy responsibilities - and especially in the fields of development and environmental policies.

Currently, too much duplication and inadequate coordination are preventing intergovernmental bodies from taking effective global action to ensure the protection and conservation of international "public goods" in such areas as the oceans, the atmosphere, water, biodiversity and public health. Business looks to the UN to give a lead in tackling such global problems that cannot be resolved by isolated national or regional initiatives. There is a particular need for the UN to provide a strong single focal point on environmental issues, which have important linkages to the work of a host of other intergovernmental organizations.

World business recognizes the need for the UN to have sufficient resources and authority to tackle effectively the complex and often inter-related global problems of today, while urging further streamlining as part of the institutional reforms being undertaken by the UN system to tackle bureaucracy and the duplication of tasks. The UN should be prepared to assume responsibility for coordinating international decision-making more efficiently.

*partie=titre 5. Electronic business *partie=nil

Rapid advances in communications and computer technologies have opened up a huge potential for improving economic efficiency through electronic commercial transactions, as well as creating the wider basis for a global knowledge economy. However, the necessary legal and regulatory framework to enable business and consumers to tke full advantage of these technologies is not yet in place. 

The development of this framework requires a new partnership between business and governments, since each has distinct roles to play. Because of the rapidly-changing technology in this area, technical and regulatory standards and solutions should be flexible and be primarily developed by the private sector. 

Numerous business groups are working to develop self-regulatory standards governing commerce in cyberspace. As the global business organization representing all sectors, ICC is playing a leadership and umbrella role for these groups in preparing the basic rules of the road for electronic business. ICC has already created a basic framework of codes and best practice guidelines for ensuring trustworthy digital transactions, protection of privacy, and ethical advertising on the Internet.

The essential role of governments is to establish a flexible and internationally consistent legislative and institutional framework that encourages business to develop standards and push forward with technological innovation. Business particularly urges governments to:
remove obstacles to the expansion of electronic business embedded in existing laws and treaties; 
allow business investments in technologies and solutions that enhance consumer confidence to demonstrate their viability; 
protect intellectual property rights in digital environments. 

In 1998, as part of the Alliance for Global Business, ICC issued a comprehensive business Global Action Plan for Electronic Commerce. The second edition of the Action Plan (1999) contained more than 60 examples of business self-regulation in the area of electronic commerce. This rapidly growing list of examples should give governments confidence that they can focus on their key role of ensuring a level playing-field for firms to compete, as well as law and order and the protection of physical and intellectual property rights.

*partie=titre 6. Climate change *partie=nil

As part of the on-going international negotiations on climate change, the G8 governments are urged to examine in full the broad economic, social and environmental implications which will stem from imposition of the legally-binding targets for emission reductions that form part of the 1997 Kyoto Protocol.

ICC calls upon the G8 governments to ensure that the market-based, flexible mechanisms built into the Kyoto Protocol are developed at the Sixth Conference of the Parties scheduled for November 2000 in the Hague in a manner which truly respects market logic. This will require reducing to an absolute minimum bureaucracy, administrative requirements, and politicization of the flexible mechanisms process - essential conditions if a cost-effective market to speed emission reductions is to become a reality.

*partie=titre 7. Business and codes of conduct *partie=nil

ICC wishes to express its growing oncern at the renewed trend towards the proliferation and widening scope of government-mandated codes of conduct at the international level purporting to improve the 'corporate social responsibility' of enterprises trading or investing overseas. We urge governments, and particularly those represented at Okinawa, to stand firm in rejecting demands by publicly unaccountable, and frequently unrepresentative, external groups seeking to impose such codes on "multinationals" and claiming the right to pass judgement on companies' compliance with them.

There is no demonstrable need for further government-mandated detailed rules of such a nature. Research by a variety of international organizations has found no evidence of any significant or systematic problems, either economic or political, stemming from the activities of the rapidly growing number of multinational enterprises. On the contrary, numerous studies have shown that multinationals are good corporate citizens who contribute very positively to raising standards among customers, suppliers and business associates - in areas such as labour, the environment and human rights - in countries where they operate.

History has shown that improvements in human rights and in labour and environmental standards are more readily attainable in conditions of rising prosperity, produced by the interaction of the market economy and good governance. And good corporate practice is spread more effectively by example, persuasion and peer pressure - rather than by prescriptive government codes and regulations. Voluntary business principles, developed by companies themselves or by business organizations such as ICC, also have the invaluable advantage of bridging cultural diversities within multinational enterprises and offering the flexibility to tailor solutions to particular conditions.

*partie=titre 8. Improving the quality of financial information *partie=nil

The globalization of business investment and capital markets has increased the need for high-quality financial information. It is widely agreed, for example, that doubts about the reliability of corporate financial statements in some nations contributed to the breadth and depth of the financial crises in the recent past affecting Asia, Latin America and Russia. At the same time, business enterprises would benefit from a common approach to reporting that is characterized by consistency, coherence and ease of implementation and understanding.

ICC therefore calls for the changes at national and international levels necessary for all general-purpose financial information to be prepared according to a single worldwide framework using common measurement criteria and requiring fair and comprehensive disclosure. The framework employed must provide users with a transparent representation of the underlying economics of transactions and must be applied rigorously and consistently. Reform will require a commitment by governments and the business community working together with the accountancy profession around the world.

Business, and in particular the preparers of accounts, would like to see the emergence of one single system of international accounting. If, for the time being, it proves impossible to harmonize the two systems currently used by international companies in the industrialized world - namely, International Accounting Standards (IAS) and the US Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (USGAAP) - agreement should be sought on mutual recognition. The recommendation in May this year by the International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO) - the stock exchange regulators - that IOSCO members permit the use of IAS for cross-border offerings and listings was a breakthrough and should be rapidly implemented. 

*{The International Chamber of Commerce

The ICC is the world business organization. It is the only representative body that speaks with authority on behalf of enterprises from all sectors in every part of the world.

The ICC's purpose is to promote an open international trade and investment system and the market economy worldwide. It makes rules that govern the conduct of business across borders. It provides essential services, foremost among them the ICC International Court of Arbitration, the world's leading institution of its kind.

Within a year of the creation of the United Nations, the ICC was granted consultative status at the highest level with the UN and its specialized agencies. Today the ICC is the preferred partner of international and regional organizations whenever decisions have to be made on global issues of importance to business.

Business leaders and experts drawn from the ICC membership establish the business stance on broad issues of trade and investment policy as well as on vital technical or sectoral subjects. These include financial services, information technologies, telecommunications, marketing ethics, the environment, transportation, competition law and intellectual property, among others.

The ICC was founded in 1919 by a handful of far-sighted business leaders. Today it groups thousands of member companies and associations from over 130 countries. National committees in all major capitals coordinate with their membership to address the concerns of the business community and to put across to their governments the business views formulated by the ICC.}