The ICC World Chambers Federation (WCF) General Council convened on Tuesday, 21 November 2023, in Paris.

Key Decisions taken during the WCF General Council meeting (21 November, 2023):

1.  Approval of new WCF members in 2023

Following the revision of the WCF Articles, the WCF General Council was informed of the status of WCF membership and consulted for the first time on the new membership requests. Without any objections, 185 new members were approved (subject to further approval by the ICC World Council in June 2024). WCF now has 1,554 members and a total network of 3,301 chambers in its database.

2. Creation of the WCF Women Council

As presented during his campaign, Mr. Hisarcıklıoğlu announced the establishment of a WCF Women Council to foster women's leadership in business and chambers. The workplan for 2024 will be discussed in the coming weeks under the leadership of the WCF First Vice-Chair, Marie-Christine Oghly, WCF Vice-Chair for Oceania, Nola Watson, and WCF Vice-Chair for Africa, Toki Mabogunje.

3. Establishment of a Task Force on Chamber Network

Reflecting the WCF Chair's priority to increase the WCF chambers network through a new WCF affiliation mechanism, it was decided to establish a task force to further develop the concept of such a mechanism and its implementation, in collaboration with the ICC Secretariat. A Task Force chair should be appointed in the coming weeks.

4. Approval of new countries for ATA Carnet chain and implementation of eATA

Following the recommendation from the World ATA Carnet Council (WATAC), the WCF General Council approved the affiliation of the following national guaranteeing associations as members of the Guaranteeing Chain: Lima Chamber of Commerce in Peru, Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry in The Philippines, and Federation of Saudi Chambers in Saudi Arabia (conditional approval). Additionally, it was agreed that ICC will push for a coordinated effort through ATA Chain members and the World Customs Organization (WCO) to advocate for an accelerated adoption of eATA by customs worldwide.

5. Next meeting dates and ICC WCF Regional Summits in 2024

During the meeting, it was announced that the co-hosts of the 2024 ICC WCF Regional Summits would be the Bogota Chamber of Commerce, hosting the first summit in Colombia from 8 to 10 May. In-person WCF Executive Committee and General Council meetings will also take place during that time in Bogota. Then, from 23 to 25 October, TOBB will co-host the summit in Istanbul, alongside in-person meetings of the WCF Executive Committee and General Council.