Why join ICC

There are various categories of membership. For further information contact:

Brett Hogan, Chief Executive on +61 3 9668 9950 or by email at brett.hogan@melb.acci.asn.au.

ICC Benefits to members

• ICC is the only organisation that speaks with authority on behalf of enterprises from all sectors in every part of the world. Through ICC, member companies project views that command respect and are heeded by governments.
• ICC gives priority to the issues that most urgently concern its members. A current example is the creation of a body of rules for business self-regulation of electronic commerce. ICC also works on the modernisation of customs procedures, singled out as the source of huge unnecessary costs as tariffs and other barriers to cross-border trade come down. It is the members who set ICC’s agenda.
• ICC opens the door to the corridors of power. As ICC members, company executives have personal access to government ministers and top international officials who make decisions affecting the bottom line. Before the G8 Summit every year, ICC leaders put across business views on global economic issues at a private meeting with the head of the host government.
• A stream of laws and regulations by governments and intergovernmental organisations affects all aspects of business, among them trade, investment, the environment, taxation, competition law and intellectual property. Members of ICC learn what really matters at an early stage - and win time to make the right decisions.
• ICC members are instrumental in drawing up rules that business uses every day to reduce costs and uncertainties - on arbitration, banking, commercial contracts, and so on. In the process they gain unique insights into the vital area of trade facilitation.
• ICC brings together the world's biggest, most influential and dynamic companies. In joining ICC, a company becomes part of the world's most prominent business organisation. ICC members gain influence at national level through ICC's global network of national committees and at the international level through ICC's privileged links with major intergovernmental organisations, such as the World Trade Organisation.
• ICC is a treasure trove of information and experience in all matters affecting business operations. Members contribute their own know-how to ICC statements on the topics that most concern them. They tap into the vast multidisciplinary knowledge of the 500 business experts who carry out the work of ICC's policy commissions.
• ICC is open to the private sector throughout the world. At the same time, it offers members many of the advantages of belonging to a prestigious club, such as the chance to forge business relationships at the highest level at exclusive ICC events.

ICC International Court of Arbitration continues to be one of the main activities. The rules revision process, which culminated in the publishing of our new rules to come into effect at the beginning of 1998, has already begun to have an effect. We hope that the new process will be quicker and more efficient, without diminishing the superb quality control that is one of our Court’s strengths.

Our Commissions continue to produce rules and codes of practice in areas where new guidelines are needed. In the banking area we published eUCP, which is the electronic commerce version of UCP500. We continue to revise and update our marketing codes of practice to keep them up to date with international requirements.

As with rules and codes, ICC Australia also plays an important part in the policy work in Paris, so that we can be sure of including the views of our membership in policy statements and representations that are made to international organisations such as the World Trade Organisation, the EU, the World Bank and the United Nations. Over the past twelve months our links with the WTO and the UN have strengthened considerably.

Please contact ICC Australia if you have any queries on ICC membership.