Here is Part “I” of my series, “International Trade Alphabet Soup” that will periodically list and provide context for key acronyms and international trade terms:
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IACAC — Inter-American Commercial Arbitration Commission provides a system for settlement, by arbitration or conciliation, of international commercial disputes throughout the Western Hemisphere.
IADB (or IDB) — Inter-American Development Bank supports Latin American and Caribbean economic development, social development and regional integration by lending to governments and government agencies, including State corporations.
IAIGC — Inter-Arab Investment Guarantee Corporation is a multilateral regional organization jointly owned by twenty-one Arab countries aimed at encouraging financial investment in Arab countries.
IATA — International Air Transport Association is a trade association of the world’s major airlines and supports airline activity and helps formulate industry policy and standards.
IBRD — International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (World Bank) was established in 1944 with the mission of financing the reconstruction of European nations devastated by World War II and today offers loans to middle-income developing countries. The IBRD is the first of five member institutions that compose the World Bank Group and is headquartered in Washington, D.C., United States.
ICA — International Coffee Agreement is an international commodity agreement between coffee producing countries and consuming countries which relies primarily on export quotas to maintain exporting countries’ quotas and keep coffee prices high and stable in the market, mainly using export quotas to steer the price. (See also International Coffee Organization below.)
ICA — International Cocoa Agreement aims to strengthen the global cocoa sector, supporting its sustainable development and increasing the benefits to all stakeholders, with the main objectives of promoting international cooperation in the world cocoa economy and providing an appropriate framework for discussion on all cocoa matters among governments and with the private sector.
ICO — International Coffee Organization, was initiated in collaboration with the United Nations (UN) to enhance cooperation between nations that consume, distribute and produce coffee; as of 2014, its 45 members consisted of 39 exporting nations, 6 importing nations and 1 importing community (the European Union).
ICA — an “international commodity agreement” is an undertaking by a group of countries to stabilize trade, supplies, and prices of a commodity for the benefit of participating countries.
ICAO — International Civil Aviation Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations which codifies the principles and techniques of international air navigation and fosters the planning and development of international air transport to ensure safe and orderly growth.
ICC — International Chamber of Commerce, the largest business organization in the world with member companies in over 180 countries has three main activities: rule setting, dispute resolution, and policy advocacy. The ICC publishes the Incoterms commonly used in international and domestic trade transactions around the world.
ICSID — International Center for the Settlement of Investment Disputes is an international arbitration institution which facilitates legal dispute resolution and conciliation between international investors.
IDA — International Development Association is an international financial institution and member of the World Bank Group which offers concessional loans and grants to the world’s poorest developing countries.
IDB (or IADB) — Inter-American Development Bank supports Latin American and Caribbean economic development, social development and regional integration by lending to governments and government agencies, including State corporations.
IEEPA — International Emergency Economic Powers Act is a US law that authorizes the President to regulate commerce after declaring a national emergency in response to any unusual and extraordinary threat to the United States which has a foreign source, providing the basis for US sanctions programs.
IFC — International Finance Corporation is an international financial institution and member of the World Bank Group that offers investment, advisory, and asset management services to encourage private sector development in developing countries.
IFIs — IFI International Financial Institutions are established (or chartered) by more than one country, making them subjects of international law, whose owners or shareholders are generally national governments, although other international institutions and other organizations occasionally figure as shareholders.
IGAD — Intergovernmental Authority on Development is an eight-country trade bloc in Africa that includes governments from the Horn of Africa, Nile Valley, and the African Great Lakes which aims to improve the investment, trade and banking environments of member states.
IIC — Inter-American Investment Corporation is a member of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) Group founded in 1985 to promote the development of the private sector in its member countries in Latin America and the Caribbean, with special emphasis on small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).
IICA — InterAmerican Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture is the specialized agency of the Inter-American System for agriculture; it supports the efforts of the Member States to achieve agricultural development and rural well-being through international technical cooperation of excellence.
IIPA – International Intellectual Property Alliance is a private sector coalition of seven trade associations representing U.S. companies that produce copyright-protected electronic and print media (including films) and which seeks to strengthen international copyright protection and enforcement.
ILO — International Labor Organization is a United Nations agency dealing with labour issues, particularly international labour standards.
IMF — International Monetary Fund is an international organization with the primary role of ensuring the stability of the international monetary system which allows countries and citizens to trade.
IMO — International Maritime Organization is a specialized agency of the United whose primary purpose is to develop and maintain a comprehensive regulatory framework for shipping.
INRA — International Natural Rubber Agreement was developed under the auspices of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) and had as its members seven exporting countries accounting for about 95% of world exports and 25 importing countries plus the European Community (three-fourths of world imports at the time), with the objective of reducing excessive price fluctuations around the trend in rubber market prices. (See also INRO below)
INRO — International Natural Rubber Organization was established to operate the now defunct International Natural Rubber Agreement.
IOC — Indian Ocean Commission is composed of five African Indian Ocean nations: Comoros, Réunion (a department of France), Madagascar, Mauritius and Seychelles; its mission includes creation of a regional economic space.
IOM – International Organization for Migration works to address issues related to the migration of people, including laborers and persons in search of work and economic stability.
IOSCO — International Organization of Securities Commissions is an association of organizations that regulate the world’s securities and futures markets.
IP — Intellectual property is a legal term that refers to creations of the mind; examples include music, literature, and other artistic works; discoveries and inventions; and words, phrases, symbols, and designs.
IPAS — Investment Promotion Agencies have the mission of attracting foreign investment to a country, state, region or city.
IPPC — International Plant Protection Convention is a multilateral treaty overseen by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) that aims to secure coordinated, effective action to prevent and to control the introduction and spread of pests of plants and plant products.
IPR — Intellectual property rights are granted by law to intellectual property (IP) owners (see above) certain exclusive rights to use and profit from their creations.
ISIC — International Standard Industrial Classification is a United Nations system for classifying economic data.
ISO — International Standards Organization comprises representatives from national standards organizations and promotes worldwide proprietary, industrial and commercial standards (e.g. ISO 22000 on Food Safety Management).
ISO — International Sugar Organization seeks to promote the trade in and consumption of sugar by gathering and publishing information on the sugar market, research into new uses for sugar and related products and as a forum for intergovernmental discussions on sugar.
ITA — International Trade Administration is an agency in the United States Department of Commerce that promotes United States exports of nonagricultural U.S. services and goods.
ITA — Information Technology Agreement is an agreement enforced by the World Trade Organization (WTO) with the goal of lowering to zero all taxes and tariffs on information technology products by signatories.
ITAR — International Traffic in Arms Regulations control the export and import of defense-related articles and services on the United States Munitions List (USML) and implement the provisions of the Arms Export Control Act (AECA).
ITC — International Trade Centre is a subsidiary organization of the World Trade Organization (WTO) and the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) and provides trade-related technical assistance to developing country members of the WTO.
ITO — International Trade Organization was the proposed name for an international institution for the regulation of trade but which never got off the ground
ITSO — International Telecommunications Satellite Organization is an intergovernmental organization charged with oversight of Intelstat, Ltd. (world’s first commercial global satellite communications system) to ensure it provides public telecommunication services on a global and non-discriminatory basis.
ITU — International Telecommunication Union is a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) that coordinates the shared global use of the radio spectrum, promotes international cooperation in assigning satellite orbits, works to improve telecommunication infrastructure in the developing world, and assists in the development and coordination of worldwide technical standards.
