The CRT was launched in 1986 by senior business leaders from Europe, Japan and North America to address global issues affected by the performance and conduct of international business. Initially concerned to promote solutions to the tensions arising from trade imbalances, the CRT has monitored the continuing changes in the economic and political landscape, and its influence has grown through the formulation and wide circulation of its Principles for Business.
Global business stands at the crossroads of the fundamental changes taking place in the world.
The CRT believes that business has a crucial role in helping to identify and promote solutions to issues that impede the development of a society that is more prosperous, sustainable and equitable. Globalization is moving forward relentlessly, with freer movement of people, capital, jobs, trade and information. Global businesses operate in essentially a borderless manner and have considerable power to effect change, while the direct role of nation states internationally is diminishing. This leads to the development of soft' laws, i.e., the effect of international conventions and bilateral treaties being used by NGO's as representing society's expectations of conduct, in advance of their adoption into the laws of individual nation states. As reluctant as some corporations have traditionally been to go beyond their operational objectives, the time has come for the roles of corporations, governments and other institutions to be significantly redefineda time for new partnerships and greater cooperation on a global level.