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The ongoing middle-east crisis might affect the global value chain, already hit by the Ukraine war and Covid-19 pandemic, and eventually the economies.
ICC Global Chairperson Maria Fernanda Garza, who arrived in Bangladesh last Saturday, warned of the economic consequences of the Israel-Palestine conflict that started recently, killing hundreds of civilians.
Talking to journalists in the city on Tuesday, she suggested digitising international trade and promoting trade liberalisation to avoid disruptions in the global supply chain.
She stressed the need for louder voices of businesses and specialised media to thwart the protectionism that has made a comeback since the 2008 financial crisis.
"Around 3,000 protective safeguards have been imposed last year on global trade and it is increasing. Louder voices of businesses and specialised media like yours (FE) are needed for defending free trade," she said, replying to a query from the FE correspondent.
Ms Garza said liberalised trade is needed to take care of the most vulnerable population.
She said Mexico is the most open country having 32 different agreements and Bangladesh can join trade agreements with the country too.
"The global value chain has restructured following the supply disruptions due to the Ukraine war. We have not seen decoupling as expected in the past," she added.
She pointed out that the situation Bangladesh is currently going through, such as bleak investment, price hike of commodities and inflationary pressure, is also present in other countries.
"We need to take out the barriers affecting us to proceed further and become more efficient in this stressful time," she added, reiterating the need for the adoption of digitisation.
She appreciated Bangladesh's outstanding resilience and ability to attain self-sufficiency in food, infrastructure development, women empowerment, reducing infant mortality, increasing average life expectancies, etc. The ICC has been promoting various initiatives including digital standards initiatives finding digital business is the key solution of trade liberalisation.
Only 1.0 per cent of the international trade is conducted through digital means. Trillions of documents are needed for trade purposes across the world, she said, adding that one regular transaction needs at least 30 to 40 different documents to fill out and 240 cut-copies need to be printed for each transaction.
Also, it implies people fill out information 10 to 20 times that lead to mistakes, she said. By digitising trade documents, people are not saving money but becoming more efficient.
Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) would be able to participate in international trade if trade documents are digitised.
Transparency and utilisation of non-personal data may help countries across the world and help more businesses to participate in global trade, she said.
She vowed to support Bangladesh on converting the plastic industry to a circular economy, climate change, through its global discussion.
She said the ICC is reviewing its anti-corruption rule that might be available within a month.
On dispute resolution, the ICC has launched an expedited procedure making that settlement of dispute would not last more than six months and cost less. Business would be able to know the cost and time of dispute resolution before lodging the case.
ICC's Court of Arbitration is the only real international dispute resolution service covering the whole world as other similar organisations are more regional, she added.
The ICC can extend support by providing its roadmap on how Bangladesh can digitise its trade, she said. Trade facilitation is not completely operational across the world having several challenges, including digital signature.
"Digitisation, skills development, imparting training for women, and high-end labour skills can add more points to the GDP of Bangladesh," she said, suggesting modernisation of the existing legal framework of Bangladesh, and imparting training to judges.
She said the ICC Bangladesh has been working to advocate the government to bring reform in financial structure.
When countries liberalise trade, they grow fast but taking some measures inside the country is important to cushion the sector going to be harmed as a result of liberalisation, she said.
"Government has to study who is going to be harmed and extend its support accordingly. Then it would be a win-win situation," she added.
Ms Garza said that the World Trade Organisation (WTO) and ICC accompany the countries during the process of their transition on graduation to middle-income status so that the vast majority would not be affected.
ICC's business council has been supporting the businesses to air their voices in the WTO, she said. "We raise our voice for all countries including least developed, developing countries."
She, however, viewed that there should not be any disruptions in trade benefit in this critical time.
On dispute resolution, she suggested legal reform and imparting training to judges to make ADR (alternative dispute resolution) successful.
Businesses are united in Bangladesh but there is a need for some legal reforms. However, it is not the best time to bring legal reform as political tensions center around national elections.
The ICC Global Chairperson said the judicial system has to recognise the arbitration process and the legal framework in Bangladesh has to be reviewed to make dispute resolution successful. The ICC Bangladesh chapter has been playing an important role in this regard.
To tame inflation, she reiterated trade facilitation to make the value chain smoother and follow the best practices like Argentina to fight the odds.
She also laid emphasis on knowledge sharing and an efficient customs system, and curbing bureaucracy to make a digitised trade system efficient.