A five-point plan to keep Ukraine’s private sector alive

While ICC welcomes emerging thinking from governments about a “modern-day” Marshall Plan to support an eventual post-war recovery, it remains gravely concerned—based on its consultations with local chambers and businesses—that the attrition of Ukraine’s productive capacity will accelerate in the coming months absent of a comprehensive package of interventions from the international community.

A new survey by the Ukrainian Chamber of Commerce and Industry indicates that 30% of businesses have completely closed their activities since early March—while a further 45% are operating at severely reduced levels of output. Trade capacity has also been reduced by an estimated 70%, with key maritime trade routes in the Black Sea unsafe for navigation—limiting the capacity of businesses to generate essential export revenues. Based on current trajectories, direct losses alone could amount to over US$500 billion.

In this context, ICC calls for immediate action to enable the continued functioning of Ukrainian business and urges the international community to commit to a five-point plan to progressively—to the extent possible—restore its productive capacity:

1. Remove tariffs and quotas on exports

2. Adopt enhanced trade facilitation measures for ground shipments

3. Boost ground logistics capacity

4. Provide full risk coverage for trade finance

5. Deliver targeted support for Ukrainian farmers

Get the Document Here

A fruitful Chairman's Lunch

Swiss Foreign Policy and the Economy

Speaker: Ambassador Stefan Estermann
At the moment, important marks are the war in Ukraine and its consequences as well as the imminent Swiss membership in the UN Security Council that will remain an important topic in the next months. What are the implications for business and what can the private sector contribute? Further, Switzerland still must find a new balance in its relations to the European Union after the negotiations on a Framework Agreement ended on unsolvable differences in core points. What are the prospects and possible timeframes? Ambassador Stefan Estermann introduced the discussion with his views on current challenges for Swiss Foreign Policy and gave us valuable insights into these pressing topics.

Thank you for the fruitful discussion! Our appreciations go to Ambassador Estermann and our distinguished guests.

World Intellecual Property Day 

IP and Youth: Innovating for a Better Future

26 April 2022, 16:00 - 18:00 CET

Innovation plays a crucial role in addressing local and global challenges, and young innovators are shaping this landscape with the power of their ideas and ambitions for the future, including the future of health. With adequate support and effective use of intellectual property (IP) rights, young innovators can mobilize change and help advance science, innovation and business for improved health outcomes.

With its focus on IP and Youth: Building a Better Future, this year’s World Intellectual Property Day provides a unique opportunity to bring young innovators and policy makers together to explore how youth innovation is generating solutions to some of the world’s greatest health challenges.

But what challenges do young innovators face and how do innovation ecosystems need to evolve to enable them to deliver their promising solutions?

An exciting line-up of award-winning young innovators will share their experiences and perspectives on these and other topical questions in two panels that promise wide-ranging and rich discussions.

Find more Information and Registration here.

Global Alliance for Trade Facilitation Annual Report 2021

ICC is pleased to share the latest Annual Report with you!

It comes at a time when supply chain crises continue to make border reforms a pressing topic. The need to make trade simple, fast, and cost-effective has never been more urgent.  

Despite the many challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic, our 2021 report details an unprecedented acceleration in Alliance initiatives during the year: 18 new projects from four the previous year, bringing the total to 30 in 29 countries across Asia, Africa, Latin America, and the Middle East. The report also details a successful conclusion to others, with significant anticipated reduction of time and cost of trade.

Read the full report here

ICC Digital Trade Conference – Are We Ready to Trade Digitally?

ICC United Kingdom is delighted to invite you to their upcoming ICC Digital Trade Conference - Are we ready to trade digitally?, to take place virtually from 6^th – 8^th April 2022.

The conference will focus on preparing industry for mass adoption of open systems and internationally recognised interoperable digital standards. Sessions will concentrate on key sectors and look at systems, operations, processes and use of interoperable standards. Each session will help identify barriers and opportunities to the creation of a modern fully digitalised trade ecosystem. They will bring together international industry experts from corporates, institutions, and advisories, putting a spotlight on “best in class” digital adoption.

WEDNESDAY 6th April 

o 09:00 – 10:00 BST | Current State of Play

o 11:00 – 12:00 BST | Transforming the Warehousing Sector

o 14:00 – 15:00 BST | Modernising Trade Finance Practices, Building the Business Case

THURSDAY 7th April

o 09:00 – 10:00 BST | Digitalising commodity transactions

o 11:00 – 12:00 BST | Digitalising and standardising shipping and logistics trade systems

o 14:00 – 15:00 BST | Digital identification as a building block for future trade

FRIDAY 8th April

o 09:00 – 10:15 BST | The Future for Digital Trade

More Information and Registration

Standards Toolkit for Cross-border Paperless Trade

We are pleased to share with you a new toolkit developed by ICC and the World Trade Organization to help companies and government agencies adopt available standards to accelerate the digitalization of trade processes.

The “Standards Toolkit for Cross-border Paperless Trade” – developed as part of ICC’s Digital Standards initiative – provides the international trade community for the first time with a comprehensive overview of existing digital trade standards that can be used to facilitate trusted, real-time supply chain collaboration and real-time data exchange.

To this end, the toolkit identifies close to 100 available standards, frameworks and initiatives that offer the potential to enable all parties in global supply chains to speak the same, universal language – regardless of the tools used to automate processes – by leveraging a core set of standardised trade-related document and data formats.

The report maps a range of foundational standards for adoption by all participants in global trade – such as country codes to legal entity identifier standards – while also incorporating starting toolkits for various types of supply chain actors, from logistics operators to customs authorities.

Get the document