New Business Guide to the G20 Process

Published on February 28, 2012

Business around the world has an increasingly influential role to provide input to G20 decisions regarding economic growth, job creation and open trade and investment. But what is the G20, and what exactly does it do? A new business guide published by the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC), part of USCIB’s global network, sets out to help business leaders and policymakers better understand the G20 process and identify the impact that G20 developments may have on global business.

The guide traces the origins of the G20 and explains its transformation into the world’s leading economic forum for international cooperation. It highlights the principal outcomes of the five summits that have taken place since 2008 and takes a targeted look at issues of particular interest for business. Such issues include restoring global economic growth and stability, promoting open trade and investment, reforming the financial sector, addressing the threat of climate change, fighting corruption, and closing the development gap.

“G20 leaders have already demonstrated their willingness to reach out to business and to listen to its advice. It is now up to business to make its voice heard and contribute ideas to help G20 governments achieve their objectives,” writes Marcus Wallenberg, chairman and CEO of SEB (Sweden) and chair of ICC’s G20 Advisory Group, in his preface to the guide.

The guide will be available for purchase from the ICC Books USA online bookstore beginning March 15. Click here for more information.

New from ICC Books USA: Commentary on UCP 600

Published on December 3, 2007

New York, N.Y., December 3, 2007– American readers of the International Chamber of Commerce’s popular publications no longer have to wait to get their hands on a copy of the long-awaited publication Commentary on UCP 600, an authoritative guide to treatment of letters of credit for international trade.

Written by the drafting group that produced ICC’s universally used rules on documentary credits. Commentary on UCP 600 is now available for purchase from ICC Books USA. Copies can be ordered online at www.iccbooksusa.com or by calling 212-703-5066.

UCP 600 is the first revision of ICC’s rules on documentary credits for 13 years. After three years of preparation, the new rules came into effect on July 1, 2007.

Other UCP revisions have been followed by ICC publications comparing past versions of the rules with the new. But Gary Collyer, chair of the drafting group, noted that UCP 600 incorporated wording that existed in various sections of the previous version, UCP 500. For that reason, he said, “the group decided that a publication comparing one set of rules with another would be too unwieldy and that a commentary on the rules themselves would prove to be more beneficial.”

“There are several major changes in UCP 600 from UCP 500. Perhaps the most important are reflected in their structure, as well as in the roles and responsibilities of the parties. Regular letter of credit users as well as infrequent or new users should take note. They need to learn what this is all about.” cautioned Don Smith, chair of USCIB’s Banking Committee and a member of the drafting group.

Commentary on UCP 600, which reflects the consensus view of drafting group members, is an article-by-article review of each of the 39 articles of the new UCP. It contains:

the text of the new article
the key changes from UCP 500
a commentary explaining the rationale for the new language, and
a cross-reference to other articles in UCP 600

“The aim has been to provide a commentary that enlightens practitioners as to the thought processes behind the changes in each article and to explain why a change was introduced and, in some cases, why no change was made,” Mr. Collyer said.

A wide range of international trade publications on numerous topics in addition to trade finance and letters of credit, are available for purchase from ICC Books USA. Please visit www.iccbooksusa.com for more information or call 212-703-5066 to request a free catalogue.

USCIB promotes an open system of world commerce. As American affiliate of the leading international business and employers organizations, including ICC, it provides business views to policy makers and regulatory authorities worldwide. USCIB facilitates international trade by issuing and guaranteeing ATA Carnets, by promoting international cooperation in such areas as customs policies and commercial dispute resolution, and through its ICC Books USA unit, which publishes a variety of publications on international trade and investment.

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ICC Books USA: Under New Management

Published on October 7, 2005

USCIB to market and distribute publications from the International Chamber of Commerce

ICC Books titles include many popular works based on ICC rule-making and policy activities

New York, N.Y., October 7, 2005 – American readers of the International Chamber of Commerce’s popular publications may not notice the difference when they log on to www.iccbooksusa.com. But the marketing and distribution of the trade, law, finance and reference materials based on the world business body’s longtime rule-making and policy work is in new hands.

As part of the restructuring of ICC’s publishing and book-selling operations in the United States, ICC’s U.S. national committee, the United States Council for International Business (USCIB), has assumed responsibility for the U.S. operations of ICC Publishing, S.A., the publishing arm of ICC based in Paris. The change in management took effect on October 1, 2005.

ICC is the world business organization, with more than 8,000 member companies in over 140 countries. In addition to serving as the voice of world business in the UN and with national governments, ICC develops widely used rules for various aspects of international trade, finance, contracts, marketing and advertising, and many other areas.

“We are delighted to be able to serve ICC’s existing readers, and we look forward to extending ICC’s many fine business publications to a broader readership, with the goal of promoting global trade” said USCIB President Peter M. Robinson. “We foresee growing interest in many ICC titles among existing customers, USCIB members and users of our various trade services, such as the ATA Carnet. And we intend to bring the interests of U.S. readers to the forefront in the development of even more exciting ICC publications.”

The operations of ICC Books USA are now located at USCIB’s headquarters in New York (1212 Avenue of the Americas, 18th floor, New York, NY 10036, tel: 212-703-5066, fax: 212-944-0012, e-mail: iccbooks@uscib.org). Online purchases can still be made at www.iccbooksusa.com.

ICC Books USA will continue to market and distribute a wide range of ICC titles, including the Incoterms series, ICC model contracts, numerous banking and trade finance titles, and ICC arbitration guides, as well as general interest titles like A to Z of International Trade, Guide to Export-Import Basics, Fighting Corruption and Corporate Governance Worldwide. In addition, upcoming titles of interest include Uniform Customs and Practice for Documentary Credits, UCP 600, the latest revision to the standard reference for trade finance professionals.

Incoterms, the current edition of UCP (UCP 500) and ICC model contracts are just three of the trade tools published by ICC which are used by millions of traders around the world on a daily basis.

USCIB promotes an open system of global commerce. As American affiliate of the leading international business and employers organizations, including ICC, it provides unparalleled access to policy makers and regulatory authorities worldwide. USCIB also works to facilitate international trade by issuing and guaranteeing ATA Carnets (for temporary, duty-free imports of various types of goods), promoting use of the ICC International Court of Arbitration and related services for the settlement of commercial disputes, and promoting other ICC services such as ICC Books USA.

ICC Books USA website