Trade & investment

Global Dialogue on Trade publishes recommendations from first round of debates

  • 3 June 2019
GDOT Website - Business Initiative to support reform process of multilateral rules-based system launched

The International Chamber of Commerce published recommendations from the first round of the Global Dialogue on Trade to contribute to the on-going intergovernmental approach to reforming the World Trade Organization and multilateral trade.

In October 2018, International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) Secretary General John W.H. Denton AO and World Trade Organization (WTO) Director General Roberto Azevedo launched the Global Dialogue on Trade (GDoT) to facilitate open discussions between stakeholders from business, multilateral organisations and academia.

ICC received about 70 submitted themes for discussion from participants around the world. After careful consideration, ICC selected three topics of discussion facing the global trade system today:  how to deal with trade distorting practices, how to take account of the growing importance of e-commerce to global trade, what is the role for plurilaterals and other negotiating tools.

Since the platform’s launch, representatives from more than 50 businesses, 14 think tanks, and 6 multilateral organisations participated in the first round of debates. Over the course of five months, stakeholders from around the world participated in lively exchanges on the future of our global rules-based trading system.

The first set of debates, which concluded in March 2019, led to the following 10 recommendations for the creation of a trusted model of open trade and free enterprise that will work for everyone, every day, and everywhere.