Alice Slayton Clark Archives

Gamble to Chair ICC Commission on Trade and Investment Policy

Published on October 7, 2011
Dupont’s Geoffrey Gamble’s.
Dupont’s Geoffrey Gamble’s.

The International Chamber of Commerce recently announced the appointment of USCIB board member Geoffrey Gamble as the incoming chair of the ICC Commission on Trade and Investment.  USCIB serves as ICC’s American national committee.

Mr. Gamble is director of international affairs with Dupont, where his responsibilities include leading the company’s global government affairs network, the development of corporate trade policy and providing legal counsel in the areas of international and comparative law, trade law, and global ethics. He previously served as vice chair of the commission.

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New Book by WTO and ILO on Sustainable Globalization

Published on September 27, 2011

USCIB Trade and Investment Update

USCIB members met with several key trade officials this month, as part of our ongoing efforts to advance a positive trade agenda in the United States and overseas.

At the September 8 meeting in Washington of USCIB’s Trade and Investment Committee, members had a wide-ranging discussion with Deputy U.S. Trade Representative Miriam Sapiro.  Themeeting covered the status of the pending free trade agreements with Korea, Colombia and Panama, as well as Trade Adjustment Assistance, on Capitol Hill; the stalled WTO Doha Round negotiations; Russia’s accession to the WTO; and trade with the Middle East and North Africa.  On hand at the meeting were additional representatives from USTR and the State Department to review the status of the U.S. model bilateral investment treaty (BIT) , as well as BIT negotiations with China, India and several other countries.  Committee members also agreed to establish a task force to discuss and develop a USCIB paper on revitalizing the global trading system.

Also in Washington, on September 19, USCIB hosted a roundtable for members with Ken Ash, director of the OECD’s Trade and Agriculture Directorate, and Raed Safadi, his deputy.  Mr. Ash discussed the OECD’s work on developing a Services Trade-Restrictiveness Index, a sector-by-sector database of trade-restrictive regulations.  He said it was especially important to encourage the BRIC countries to take part in this effort.  Mr. Safadi briefed members on the International Collaborative Initiative on Trade and Employment program, which is conducting a number of studies into the relationship between trade and jobs.  22 countries are participating in preparing papers on 24 themes.

On September 20, the World Trade Organization (WTO) and the International Labor Organization (ILO) launched Making Globalization Socially Sustainable, a publication that is the product of a collaborative two-year research program funded by the ICC Research Foundation, the research arm of USCIB affiliate the International Chamber of Commerce.

The book underlines globalization’s potential to stimulate productivity and growth, while highlighting the importance of pursuing trade, employment and social policies together in order to harness this potential. It contains contributions from leading academic experts who analyze the various channels through which globalization affects jobs and wages.

“The International Chamber of Commerce will draw from the findings of this research project to make concrete policy recommendations to G20 leaders,” said ICC Chairman Gerard Worms. “The ICC Research Foundation is very pleased to have supported this project, which will contribute to a better understanding of making globalization sustainable.”

The ICC Research Foundation was created in 2009 to fund independent research that contributes to public knowledge and debate, with the goal of improving economic conditions around the world. It also aims to promote a deeper understanding by policymakers, the media and the public of the benefits of global trade and investment.

Read more on ICC’s website.  Visit the WTO Online Bookshop to purchase a print copy of the publication.

Separately, WTO Director General Pascal Lamy told the ICC Executive Board on September 16 he was happy that cooperation ICC and the WTO has increased in recent years.  Mr. Lamy addressed the ICC Executive Board for more than an hour and then fielded questions from board members. He covered topics including the ICC-WTO working relationship, the Doha Round of trade negotiations, and issues surrounding protectionism and trade facilitation.

In addition to the above-mentioned book project, the ICC-WTO partnership has taken on various forms, with recent examples including ICC policy input on the topics of trade and investment, intellectual property and competition, ahead of the WTO Ministerial Conference on December 15-17.

Business Presses for Action on State-Owned Enterprises in Trans-Pacific Trade Talks

Published on September 7, 2011

USCIB has joined with three other business groups in urging the U.S. government to propose strong disciplines on state-owned enterprises in the context of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) negotiations.

In a letter to Michael Froman, the deputy national security advisor for international economic affairs, and Demetrios Marantis, deputy U.S. trade representative, the groups wrote:

“On the eve of the Chicago Round, the stakes in the TPP could not be higher. A successfully concluded TPP that sets the benchmark for 21st century bilateral, regional and multilateral trade and investment disciplines will go a long way towards establishing new rules of the road that would help U.S. companies and workers overcome the serious disadvantages that they face in competition with SOEs as commercial actors.

“We are concerned, however, that the final text tabled by the United States in the negotiations may fall short of the robust and detailed disciplines that are needed to ensure that U.S. exporters, investors, and American workers are able to compete on a level playing field against SOEs and the government support which they receive through myriad preferential policies.  For our organizations, the TPP does not represent an incremental opportunity; it is an opportunity for an ambitious and game-changing approach worthy of the 21st century model it is intended to represent.

“As a result, we strongly encourage a final text be tabled that prescribes a detailed and comprehensive code of conduct to TPP negotiating partners.  This code of conduct should include disciplines and obligations that can effectively deter governments from employing policy mechanisms that advantage SOEs in the marketplace when in competition with private actors.”

Other groups signing the letter were the National Foreign Trade Council, Coalition of Service Industries and U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

Staff contact: Shaun Donnelly, sdonnelly@uscib.org

Business letter on Trans-Pacific Partnership

From the President: Dealing With State-Owned Enterprises (Winter 2010-2011)

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Donnelly Joins USCIB as Vice President of Investment and Financial Services

Published on September 7, 2011
Shaun Donnelly
Shaun Donnelly

New York, N.Y., September 7, 2011 – Shaun Donnelly, a career diplomat who has held several senior executive branch posts, has joined the United States Council for International Business (USCIB), a pro-trade group representing America’s top global companies, as vice president for investment and financial services.

“Shaun Donnelly comes to USCIB at a critical time for investment policy around the world,” said USCIB President and CEO Peter M. Robinson.  “America’s future prosperity depends on opening up new markets for investment, trade and technological know-how.  Shaun’s wealth of experience at the State Department, USTR and in the Washington business community, and his top-notch reputation in commercial diplomacy, will ensure that USCIB continues to play a leadership role in crafting sensible policies that ensure fair competition and a level playing field, both at home and around the world.”

Founded in 1945, USCIB works to advance U.S. industry positions globally through a unique network of overseas business groups and official standing in a number of intergovernmental bodies, including the OECD and the International Labor Organization.  It has been at the forefront of efforts to foster investment-friendly policies in the United States and other countries, and its policy advocacy activities touch on many aspects of multinational business practice and regulation.

Mr. Donnelly will work out of USCIB’s Washington, D.C. office, reporting to Senior Vice President Rob Mulligan.  He brings to USCIB over 30 years’ experience with the U.S. Department of State in a wide range of roles including: principal deputy assistant secretary for economic and business affairs; U.S. ambassador to Sri Lanka; deputy assistant secretary for international trade; deputy chief of mission at the U.S. embassy in Tunisia; and a detail as assistant U.S. trade representative for Europe and the Middle East.  After retiring from the State Department in 2008, Mr. Donnelly held positions with the National Association of Manufacturers and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.  He holds a master’s degree from Northwestern University and a B.A. from Lawrence University.

Mr. Donnelly succeeds Stephen Canner, a former Treasury Department official who will remain affiliated with USCIB as a senior advisor.  “We are very grateful for Steve Canner’s energetic service with USCIB these past 16 years, and we are glad we will continue to benefit from his expertise,” said Mr. Robinson.

USCIB promotes open markets, competitiveness and innovation, sustainable development and corporate responsibility, supported by international engagement and prudent regulation.  Its members include top U.S.-based global companies and professional services firms from every sector of our economy, with operations in every region of the world.  With a unique global network encompassing the International Chamber of Commerce, the International Organization of Employers and the Business and Industry Advisory Committee to the OECD, USCIB provides business views to policy makers and regulatory authorities worldwide, and works to facilitate international trade and investment. More at www.uscib.org

Contact:

Jonathan Huneke, USCIB

(212) 703-5043 or jhuneke@uscib.org

More on USCIB’s Trade and Investment Committee

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US Ramps Up Multilateral Attention on State-Owned Enterprises

Published on August 9, 2011

August 9, 2011

U.S. Ramps Up Multilateral Attention on State-Owned Enterprises

Senior U.S. officials are pressing governments in the Asia-Pacific region and elsewhere to develop multilateral rules to rein in state-owned enterprises, which are often favored by their home governments and increasingly compete against U.S. firms in third countries.  Speaking in Hong Kong in July, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton urged Asia-Pacific governments to pursue multilateral agreements over bilateral economic pacts, develop rules in a fair and transparent manner, and avoid providing unfair advantages to state-owned enterprises.

Business Urges U.S. to Restart India Investment Talks: USCIB joined a number of industry groups in encouraging the U.S. government to re-engage India in discussions toward a bilateral investment treaty (BIT).  In a letter to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk, the business groups stated: “Negotiating a strong and high-standard BIT with India will produce substantial increases in productive investments by U.S. companies, U.S. exports and other new market opportunities for the United States.  BITs are a vital tool to protect important U.S. investments overseas that promote U.S. exports and economic growth.”  A related association letter was submitted to India’s ministry of commerce in response to a discussion paper on India’s investment policy, in particular the use of equity caps.  The business letter urged India to phase out these caps, which are expected to be an issue in any potential BIT with the United States.

“There is now a danger of creating a hodgepodge of inconsistent and partial bilateral agreements which may lower tariffs, but which also create new inefficiencies and dizzying complexities,” Secretary Clinton said.  “A small electronics shop, for example, in the Philippines might import alarm clocks from China under one free trade agreement, calculators from Malaysia under another, and so on — each with its own obscure rules and mountains of paperwork — until it no longer even makes sense to take advantage of the trade agreements at all. Instead, we should aim for true regional integration.”

Secretary Clinton said the U.S. wants to focus attention on state-owned enterprises via Trans-Pacific Partnership talks.  “We are working to ensure that the TPP is the first trade pact designed specifically to reduce barriers for small and medium-sized enterprises.  After all, these are the companies that create most of the world’s jobs, but they often face significant challenges to engaging in international trade.  So, the TPP aims to ensure fair competition, including competitive neutrality among the state-owned and private enterprises.”

These themes were echoed in remarks by Deputy U.S. Trade Representative Demetrios Marantis in Washington, also in July.  Mr. Marantis told a conference convened by the Coalition of Services Industries that, as USTR develops a proposal for dealing with state-owned enterprises in the TPP talks, negotiations, it is using work already underway in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development as a guide.

He said that the U.S. approach on SOEs in the TPP talks would be based upon OECD work on fostering “competitive neutrality” between SOEs and private firms.  “We are working right now on determining what our best negotiating proposal can be in the Trans-Pacific Partnership that covers this issue.”

 Contact: Eva Hampl or Shaun Donnelly

From the President: Dealing With State-Owned Enterprises (Winter 2010-2011)

More on USCIB’s Trade and Investment Committee

Transatlantic Dialogue on Investment Urged

Published on July 19, 2011

USCIB has joined several business associations in urging the United States and the European Union to take up shared issues relating to foreign investment as a priority matter.

In a letter to EU Trade Commissioner Karel De Gucht and Michael Froman, the U.S. deputy national security advisor for international economic affairs, the business groups argues strongly in favor of reinvigorating the U.S.–EU Investment Dialogue with special attention to:

  • coordinating efforts including promoting strong investment protections in key third countries, especially countries such as China, Russia, Ukraine, India and key countries in Latin America;
  • highlighting that a major theme of “third-country” discussions should be how the EU and U.S. can use investment and other agreements to mitigate the anticompetitive effects of government supports for state-owned enterprises;
  • reiterating a long-standing position that any evaluation of inward investment should contain safeguards to ensure that it is limited to legitimate national security concerns; and
  • tracking investment negotiations and handling of BITS in the EU as the authority for negotiating BITS has shifted from the member states to the EU Commission.

USCIB is seeking input from members on the range of issues to be taken up when the investment dialogue is revived.

 

Business letter on U.S.-EU Investment Dialogue

From the President: Dealing With State-Owned Enterprises (Winter 2010-2011)

More on USCIB’s Trade and Investment Committee

More on USCIB’s European Union Committee

Business Groups Urge No More Delays on Trade Pacts and Adjustment Assistance

Published on July 7, 2011

Yesterday USCIB joined with 33 other business groups on a letter to the leaders of the Senate Finance Committee and House Ways and Means Committee urging them to move forward on the three pending U.S. free trade agreements with Colombia, Korea and Panama, and to work out an agreed approach to Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA).

“We applaud the work of your committees for taking these next steps toward approval of these vital agreements,” the groups wrote. “To level the playing field for trade, create American jobs, and reaffirm U.S. leadership, [we] urge the swift approval of the three agreements and resolution of the differences over Trade Adjustment Assistance by both the House and Senate.”

Today both committees were expected to hold mock markups to move the approval process forward. The House implementing bill does not include TAA, while the Senate implementing bill does.

Staff contact: Rob Mulligan

Business association letter

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Concern Over Indian Procurement Initiative

Published on July 7, 2011

USCIB recently joined several other associations in a letter to Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh raising serious concerns with new draft proposals regarding procurement preferences for electronic products. These proposals would require that a percentage of all electronic procurements by the Indian government be reserved for domestic manufacturing. The letter identifies the many negative aspects of the policies for India and urges the government to not implement any policies seeking to encourage manufacturing through discrimination or by forcing local content in government procurements.

 

Business letter on Indian procurement

More on USCIB’s Trade and Investment Committee

Business Presses for Multilateral Action on China’s Currency

Published on June 29, 2011

USCIB and an array of other business groups have written to the House and Senate leadership urging that China’s undervalued currency be addressed in the context of multilateral pressure rather than unilateral U.S. punitive measures.  There are a number of proposals in Congress that would seek to compel a revaluation of the yuan through the imposition of new trade barriers to Chinese goods.

“Like Congress and the Administration, we agree that China needs a yuan exchange rate that responds to trade flows and that China should move steadily towards a market-determined exchange rate,” the business groups wrote.  “In addition to continuing U.S. government efforts, our organizations support strong, coordinated and enhanced multilateral pressure through multiple international organizations such as the G-20 and APEC to achieve concrete progress on China’s currency and exchange rate policies.”

The letter warned that unilateral efforts to impose new tariffs on Chinese goods could draw retaliatory moves that would harm U.S. exports to this fast-growing market.  “Moreover, it is doubtful that U.S. action to countervail undervalued currency could meet the WTO’s standards for the application of countervailing duties,” the groups said.

Staff contact: Justine Badimon

Business letter on China’s currency

More on USCIB’s China Committee

ICC Denounces G20 Rise in Protectionism

Published on June 3, 2011

USCIB’s affiliate the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) is urging G20 leaders to keep markets open to trade, following worrying results from a recently released WTO-OECD-UNCTAD report that G20 countries are increasing protectionist measures.

The joint report by the World Trade Organization (WTO), the Organization for Economic Cooperation (OECD) and United Nations Committee on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) on G20 trade and investment measures, released May 24, 2011, found that more new trade restrictive measures have been implemented in the past six-month period than in any previously reported period. From October 2010 to April 2011 alone, G20 members implemented 30 new export restrictions.

This occurred despite the G20’s reaffirmation at the 2010 Seoul Summit to resist protectionism until the end of 2013. G20 leaders had agreed early that year, at their Toronto Summit, to withdraw any protectionist measures in the pipeline, including export restrictions and WTO–inconsistent measures for stimulating exports. The WTO-OECD-UNCTAD report reveals that the exact opposite is taking place.

The joint report further confirms an ICC-commissioned study, released by the Peterson Institute for International Economics in 2010, stating that all G20 countries have implemented protectionist trade measures since 2008. Concerns in the global business community about this protectionist trend have prompted ICC to put into place its own indicator to monitor market openness. The Open Market Index will provide an annual ranking of the 50 top-trading countries by order of their openness to trade and investment. This private sector indicator to monitor protectionism will be launched ahead of the G20 Summit – being held in Cannes, France on November 3-4, 2011.

Staff contact: Rob Mulligan

More on the ICC-commissioned study by the Peterson Institute for International Economics

More information on Global Trade Alert

More on USCIB’s Trade and Investment Committee