ICC Releases its Latest Trade Finance Survey
According to this year's Global Survey - which received 357 responses from 109 countries worldwide - 61% of respondents reported a global shortage of trade finance. Only 52% of respondents reported an increase in trade finance activity, compared to 63% in 2015 and 80% in 2012. Furthermore, the perceived shortfall came predominantly from regional and global banks - 78% and 56% respectively, compared to 41% of national banks. ICC Secretary General John Danilovich said: " We must emphasise the importance of trade finance. It is often forgotten - trade finance has dropped off the international agenda. A decrease in the use of traditional trade finance was also evident in this year's Global Survey report…
ICC partners WCGC for Annual Golf Tournament
The International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) has become the Official Global Partner of the World Corporate Golf Challenge (WCGC), the largest and longest running corporate amateur golf event. The new venture is set to expand international participation, branding and media attention, making the event the "must-play" golf tournament of the year for business executives around the globe. An established event, held consecutively for 20 years, WCGC now plans to launch new tournaments in emerging and established markets across every continent to increase the number of business executives taking part worldwide. The ambition is to host events in over 60 countries and recruit more than 40,000 high level executives, representing approximately 25,000 companies year on year.
ICC calls TFA Setback Disappointing
The International Chamber of Commerce has expressed deep concern that the deadline to implement the World Trade Organization’s (WTO) Trade Facilitation Agreement (TFA) has been missed. Under the terms of the WTO’s Bali deal—agreed to by all WTO members last December— a “legal protocol” to operationalize the TFA was due to be agreed today by the WTO membership. This deadline has now been missed due to a standoff over the negotiation of a separate agreement on national food security programmes. Commenting on the news, ICC Secretary General John Danilovich said: “There’s huge frustration that a deal with the potential to inject a US$1 trillion stimulus into the global economy has been blocked by a diplomatic standoff in Geneva. “The deal agreed in Bali last December matters to us all.
