The International Chamber of Commerce (ICC), the world business organisation, promotes an open international trade and investment system and the market economy. Our conviction that trade is a powerful force for peace and prosperity dates from our earliest years, when the small group of business leaders who founded ICC called themselves ‘the merchants of peace ’. Increasingly, experience is demonstrating the significant benefits brought by international trade and investment in faster economic growth and significant reductions in poverty – as strongly evidenced by the current economic success of India and China resulting in the ability to reduce poverty levels in both these countries significantly
