All rights reserved. The ICC recommended to governments attending the Denver Group of Seven summit in June that they push for early completion of international negotiations on financial services and for a multilateral agreement on investment. The ICC's annual statement to the summit also said that governments and business should do more to explain the benefits of globalization, too often perceived in the public mind as a threat.
Globalization is a powerful force for raising living standards across the world.
It is bringing unprecedented opportunities to billions of people. The statement, delivered to each of the heads of state and government attending the Denver summit, put forward a programme for further liberalization of trade and investment. The ICC congratulated the summit governments for their leadership in bringing about the recent agreements in the World Trade Organization on liberalizing trade in basic telecommunications and to eliminate customs duties on information technology products by the year 2000. Comparable leadership was needed in financial services, a sector of crucial interest to business everywhere. The financial services negotiations were resumed in April and are due to be concluded by the end of this year.