The International Network of the Chamber of Commerce

The International Chamber of Commerce is the world business organisation, the only representative body that speaks with authority on behalf of enterprises from all sectors in every part of the world.
ICC was founded in 1919. Today it has members from over 130 countries. The International Chamber promotes an open international trade and investment system and the market economy. Its conviction that trade is a powerful force for peace and prosperity dates from the organisation’s origins early in the century. The small group of far-sighted business leaders who founded the International Chamber called themselves "the merchants of peace".
The International Chamber also provides essential services, foremost among them the ICC International Court of Arbitration, the world’s leading institution of its kind. 

Within a year of the creation of the United Nations, the International Chamber was granted consultative status at the highest level with the UN and its specialised agencies.
Business leaders and experts drawn from the International Chamber membership establish the business stance on broad issues of trade and investment policy as well as on vital technical and sectoral subjects. These include financial services, information technologies, telecommunications, marketing ethics, the environment, transportation, competition law and intellectual property, among others.
The Chamber in New Zealand is a direct member of the International Chamber with its own national committee which has established an arbitration sub-committee.
A national committee is the representative office of the International Chamber in the country concerned. National committees in the world’s major capitals coordinate with their membership to address the concerns of the business community and to put across to their governments the business views formulated by ICC.
The International Chamber global network also allows them to have access to companies and organisations worldwide, giving a totally international dimension to their work.
The national committee has the exclusive right to nominate members to ICC commissions and ICC working groups. Members of these groups are expected to have appropriate expertise and preferably be available to attend commission meetings.

For most of this century the International Chamber of Commerce has been the world’s leading organisation in the field of international commercial dispute resolution.

Established in 1923 as the arbitration body of the International Chamber, the International Court of Arbitration has pioneered international commercial arbitration as it is known today. The court took the lead in securing the worldwide acceptance of arbitration as the most effective way of resolving international commercial disputes.
The dispute resolution mechanisms developed by the International Chamber of Commerce have been conceived specifically for business disputes in an international context. These disputes pose unique difficulties and challenges. Usually parties will be of different nationalities with different linguistic, legal and cultural backgrounds. They may also have very different expectations about how a dispute can be resolved reasonably and fairly.
The court has 75 members from 57 countries. Most of them are lawyers or specialists in international business. The court itself does not resolve disputes but names independent arbitrators to carry out this task. In making these appointments the court requests nominations from national committees and there have been a number of arbitrators appointed who have been nominated by NZ’s ICC national committee.

For more information see the Website: www.iccwbo.org