Despite repeated pledges to enable trade as a driver of growth and job creation, G20 economies are failing to demonstrate global leadership on trade openness according to the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) Open Markets Index 2017 (OMI) published today.
The report – commissioned by the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) – shows that G20 nations rank below the global standard in terms of openness to trade, with only Canada placing among the world’s top 20 open markets. Singapore, Luxembourg and Hong Kong SAR head the 2017 rankings for the fourth successive edition of the report, far outstripping major economies such as the United States in terms of trade openness.
The Index scores 75 countries on a scale of one to six on four key factors: observed trade openness, trade policy, openness to foreign direct investment and trade-enabling infrastructure. In doing so, the Index also monitors government follow through on longstanding G20 commitments to boost global trade flows.
Scoring the G20 – room for improvement
The latest edition of the Index reveals that 18 of the G20 economies score only average or below average in terms of their overall openness to trade. The two lowest-scoring G20 economies are Brazil and Argentina.
ICC Secretary General John Danilovich said: “ICC has steadfastly called on the G20 to maintain a strong stance against protectionism since the global financial crisis. There must be no return to 1930’s style beggar thy neighbor policies – and the private sector must not shy away from driving this point home.”
Other findings
The latest edition of the Index, launched as government leaders gather in Hamburg tomorrow at G20 Summit, reveals that:
- three economies ranked as ‘excellent’ in terms of overall openness (scoring above 5.0), specifically Hong Kong, Luxembourg and Singapore.
- the lowest ranking economies were Ethiopia, Venezuela and and Sudan.
- ICC is calling on the G20 to commit to a package of reforms to enable trade as a driver of growth jobs and opportunity.
ICC is calling on the G20 to commit to a package of reforms to enable trade as a driver of growth jobs and opportunity.
Click here for further details on the ICC Business World Trade Agenda
Download the report package of reforms to enable trade
In addition to the Index, ICC has published detailed profiles for the 75 economies featured. Following are the top 20 most open economies according to the 2017 Index:
| RANKING OF FINAL OMI ECONOMIES (From 6 most open, to 1 least open) |
Final OMI Score | FINAL RANK |
| Singapore | 5.63 | 1 |
| Hong Kong SAR | 5.53 | 2 |
| Luxembourg | 5.02 | 3 |
| Netherlands | 4.81 | 4 |
| Ireland | 4.77 | 5 |
| Switserland | 4.74 | 6 |
| Malta | 4.71 | 7 |
| United Arab Emirates | 4.66 | 8 |
| Belgium | 4.57 | 9 |
| Iceland | 4.29 | 10 |
| Norway | 4.24 | 11 |
| Slovak Republic | 4.22 | 12 |
| Hungary | 4.14 | 13 |
| Czech Republic | 4.13 | 14 |
| Estonia | 4.10 | 15 |
| Lithuania | 4.09 | 16 |
| Canada | 4.08 | 17 |
| Sweden | 4.08 | 18 |
| Austria | 4.06 | 19 |
| Denmark | 4.04 | 20 |
DOWNLOAD HERE THE ICC OPEN MARKET INDEX 2017
The fewer the barriers to the cross-border flow of goods, services, capital and labour, the greater the openness of an economy. The International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) publishes the Open Markets Index (OMI) with the aim of presenting a balanced and reliable measurement of an economy’s openness to trade. ICC hopes that the OMI may serve as a guide for governments in implementing reforms to enable trade as a driver of sustainable growth and job creation.