“The trade has collapsed about a third and to rebuild that trade is actually going to take number of things. One of which is access to finance” – ICC Secretary General John Denton told The Checkpoints.

As the latest estimates show, 3 to 5 trillion USD of liquidity is required to actually enable trade finance to operate at the 2019 level. “That’s a huge gap” – Denton said.

In an exclusive interview with Elene Kvanchilashvili, ICC Secretary General also highlighted what he believes is a real downside risk to the recovery. “

“If politicians take a view that it is in their interests to show strength and authority to their people and the way to do that is to close their borders and become more nationalistic – Denton told The Checkpoints - then the capacity for trade to keep flowing [vanishes] and if you don’t have trade flowing, one of the key leaders for the global economic growth disappears. And that is a huge risk”.

John Denton became Secretary General of the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) in 2018. He is a global business leader and international advisor on policy and a legal expert on international trade and investment. Denton serves on the Board of leading global infrastructure group IFM Investors and is Chair of the Asia Pacific Advisory Council of Veracity WorldWide.
ICC is the institutional representative of more than 45 million companies in over 100 countries. Its mission is to make business work for everyone, every day, everywhere.