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The International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) has created a new advisory body comprising of CEOs from a number of major corporates including Nestle, Li & Fung and Royal Dutch Shell.

The ICC G-20 advisory group will be working to ensure that the interests of businesses are represented at the G-20 summit to be held in Cannes, France in November this year.

It held its inaugural meeting in Paris this week.

Speaking to GTR, ICC Secretary General Jean-Guy Carrier explains that the purpose of the group is to generate new ideas and policies that can support open trade and economic growth in both the emerging and developed markets.

He notes that although he would like to see the stalled Doha negotiations completed, he acknowledges that the talks have reached an impasse and that governments need to think of new ways of supporting international trade and development.

“The Doha round has not gone anyway for 10 years and although there are deadlines at the end of this year – the result is very much in doubt.”

We recognise that a lot of people are giving up hope on the Doha round.”

Carrier believes that the G-20 meeting needs to consider other means of boosting international trade and investment.

“We recognise that a lot of people are giving up hope on the Doha round – and although we are not doing that – we are on the other hand realistic enough to understand that there needs to be some post-Doha thinking,” he explains to GTR.

The secretary-general remarks that G-20 talks held over the past few years have failed to address some significant problems.

“What we see is no action taken on multilateral trade negotiations,” he argues, adding that despite promises by G-20 countries to prevent protectionism there has been the gradual introduction of protectionist measures in many countries, both in emerging economies such as China and India, as well as the developed economies.

Discussions on the potential policies this new advisory group will present to the G-20 will be held over the next few months.

The group will also been addressing issues such as strengthening financial corruption, reforming the international monetary system and reducing commodity price volatility.