Combatting international commercial crime

Today, trade is growing twice as fast, and foreign direct investment four times as fast, as national economies. Communication costs continue to fall, whilst their ease and capacity continues to expand. The virtues of the free market, notably privatization and deregulation, have been endorsed all over the world. The pressure to move money, goods and services across borders has led to the removal of regulations and controls internally and at borders. However, there is a price being paid. These activities have opened up vast economic spheres to potential private abuse and they have fostered growth conditions for international crime, particularly where regulatory mechanisms are not strong enough. The UN estimates that organized crime is a 750 billion a-year-enterprise. These issues need to be effectively dealt with. International crime needs to be checked and reduced.