ICC seeks to boost trade cooperation through ASEAN engagement  

ICC’s programme in the region includes a high-level roundtable co-hosted with the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, the ICC Academy’s Supply Chain Finance Summit and a leading role in the ASEAN Business and Investment Summit, all aimed at championing renewed collaboration on trade reform and economic resilience.

 Developing reform proposals

The roundtable, co-hosted with the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, brought together ASEAN officials, business leaders and research institutions to forge ASEAN consensus around ICC’s proposals to address prevailing business challenges. These include uncertainty stemming from rising trade barriers and supply chain pressures, and outdated multilateral rules on industrial subsidies, data flows, export controls and rules of origin.

 In his opening remarks, ICC Chair Philippe Varin said: 

“We are honoured to begin the consultations on our proposals to revitalise international trade with the ASEAN region. This is no coincidence. ASEAN’s remarkable economic progress has been built on the foundations of a stable, rules-based multilateral trading system. Any erosion of this system would put at risk the prosperity that Southeast Asia has worked so hard to achieve through regional cooperation.”

Ideas generated through the dialogue will feed into next week’s ASEAN Summit in Kuala Lumpur — as well as informing ICC’s broader efforts to champion a revitalisation of the multilateral trading system.

Rebuilding trust in supply chain finance

The two-day ICC Supply Chain Finance Summit on 22-23 October brought together trade, finance, policy and technology leaders to address how the supply chain finance ecosystem is adapting to geopolitical fragmentation, digital disruption and demands for greater transparency. Discussions focused on rebuilding trust across complex supply chains, the future of liquidity amid credit tightening, and how blockchain, AI and digital documentation are reshaping efficiency and risk models.

 Opening the Summit, ICC Secretary General John W.H. Denton AO said: 

 “ICC’s efforts are aimed at helping those who hesitate to grow because trade is too complex, too costly, or too opaque. If we remove those barriers, we save jobs, support families, and sustain communities.”

 High-level institutional engagement

ICC’s 190th Executive Board meeting also took place in Singapore earlier this week — with a strong focus on the organisation’s practical efforts to facilitate trade in the current geo-economic context.

Given ASEAN’s growing economic influence and trade-dependent growth model, ICC views the region as uniquely positioned as a springboard to strengthen and modernise the rules-based trading system.