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USCIB Welcomes New Co-Chairs of the Corporate Responsibility & Labor Affairs Committee

Published on July 20, 2022

USCIB is pleased to announce our new Co-Chairs of the USCIB Corporate Responsibility and Labor Affairs Committee, IBM Vice President of Global Workforce Policy David Barnes and Bechtel Corporation’s Global Head of Sustainability and General Manager for bechtel.org Tam Nguyen.

Barnes leads IBM’s global agenda in workforce public policy and is based in Washington DC. He oversees IBM’s advocacy on a range of issues including the future of work, labor and employment rules, skills and education, diversity and the use of AI in employment. He engages on these topics with government leaders and in multilateral fora such as the G7, the EU and at the OECD where he is Vice Chair of the Business at OECD Employment, Labor and Social Affairs Committee. Barnes has been in active participant in USCIB’s Corporate Responsibility and Labor Affairs committee, including serving as vice chair for the past 2 years.

Nguyen has twenty years of progressive, diversified experience in sustainability, corporate strategy and management, business development, and intrapreneurship. He’s the global head of sustainability for Bechtel Corporation, an international engineering and construction company, and general manager of bechtel.org, its social enterprise. He formulated Bechtel’s sustainability strategy, directed implementation and supports integration across the enterprise and its ESG process. He also prepared Bechtel’s net zero blueprint and led the implementation of its human rights program. Nguyen is a member of the U.S. Millennium Challenge Corporation Advisory Council, vice-chair of the corporate responsibility committee and former chair of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) working group of the USCIB, and a board member of Chevron’s Niger Delta Partnership Initiative – a social enterprise he helped create.

“David and Tam bring extensive knowledge and expertise in many fields, including labor relations, sustainability, corporate responsibility and responsible business conduct,” said USCIB Vice President for Corporate Responsibility and Labor Affairs Gabriella Rigg Herzog. “We thank David and Tam for accepting these Co-Chair leadership roles, and we thank our outgoing Chair – Laura Rubbo of The Walt Disney Company – for her years of valued service.”

USCIB Announces Leadership Change in Corporate Responsibility & Labor Affairs Work

Published on July 20, 2022
Laura Rubbo attends USCIB’s 2019 International Leadership Award Dinner
L-R: Peter Robinson (USCIB), Laura Rubbo (The Walt Disney Company), Guy Ryder (ILO), Terry McGraw (USCIB and formerly S&P Global)

USCIB has announced that after nearly eight years of outstanding leadership, Executive Director for Global Public Policy at The Walt Disney Company Laura Chapman Rubbo is stepping down from the chairmanship of USCIB’s Corporate Responsibility & Labor Affairs Committee (CR/LA).

One of the leading global practitioners in the fields of Corporate Responsibility, Labor, and Responsible Business Conduct, Rubbo has held the Committee’s Chairperson role for over seven years and served as its Vice Chair for two years as well. As an ambassador for the profession, Rubbo has constantly driven improvements and innovations in the social compliance programs of some of the world’s largest companies and across high impact industries.

“Laura’s insights and experience have served the Committee and our Members,” said USCIB Vice President for Corporate Responsibility and Labor Affairs Gabriella Rigg Herzog. “She has strengthened our engagement with key multilateral bodies like the International Labor Organization (ILO), the United Nations and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), as well as important U.S. Government Agencies like the Departments of State and Labor, the United States Trade Representative and the U.S. Mission to International Organizations in Geneva. Understanding first-hand the importance of stakeholder engagement and collaboration, Laura has also meaningfully advanced USCIB’s alliance building with its employer peers around the world via our unique global affiliations – the International Organization of Employers (IOE), the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC), and Business at OECD.”

“I remain so impressed by the sophistication and depth with which USCIB helps member companies engage in critical international policy discussions related to corporate responsibility and international labor affairs,” said Rubbo. “Their global network is unparalleled. I’ve also been so enriched by the collaboration with committee staff and members, who are some of the world’s leading experts on corporate responsibility. I will continue to be an ardent supporter and cheerleader of USCIB’s work in this arena.”

USCIB expresses its sincere appreciation to Laura Rubbo for her years of service. We also welcome David Barnes of IBM and Tam Nguyen of Bechtel as Co-Chairs of the USCIB Corporate Responsibility & Labor Affairs Committee.

USCIB Hosts Reception to Endorse Doreen Bogdan-Martin as New ITU Secretary General

Published on July 19, 2022
At the July 13 in reception in NY during UN HLPF. Left to right: Barbara Wanner, Doreen Bogdan-Martin, Peter Robinson

Ahead of the upcoming election this fall of the new Secretary General of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) in Bucharest, Romania, USCIB has joined the U.S. government and many others in endorsing the nomination of Doreen Bogdan-Martin to become the new ITU Secretary General. As part of this endorsement, USCIB hosted a reception on July 13 in New York during the United Nations High-Level Political Forum (UN HLPF), which was sponsored by Amazon, AT&T, BT, Lumen, Microsoft and Verizon.

“The outcome of this election will have important ramifications for telecommunications/ICT policies and regulations, which ultimately could affect countries’ ability to tap innovations that will boost economic and social prosperity, drive capacity building, and help to realize the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs),” said USCIB President and CEO Peter Robinson.

Bogdan-Martin, who currently serves as Director of the ITU Telecommunication Development Bureau, has shared her vision for the long-term success of the ITU, which includes: aiming high to achieve universal digital connectivity that is safe, inclusive and affordable; collaborating for impact to transform delivery; and excelling as an institution with integrity and accountability.

“By virtue of her leadership of the ITU Development Bureau, we believe that Ms. Bogdan-Martin possesses both substantive knowledge and leadership skills that would make her a superb ITU Secretary General and place the Union at the forefront of global efforts to meet connectivity needs and expand digital opportunities for the people of your country and around the world,” added USCIB Vice President for ICT Policy Barbara Wanner. “Importantly, she understands what business needs: effective policies and standards that attract investment and support innovation. And perhaps most important, Ms. Bogdan-Martin will ensure that the ITU continues to embrace multi-stakeholder input into the development of the ITU’s regulatory practices and technical standards, and that those practices and standards directly relate to the ITU’s core mission.”

USCIB Policy Experts Contribute to The Economist Impact’s Global Trade Week

Published on July 13, 2022

The Economist Impact kickstarted its four-day, second annual Global Trade Week (GTW) in London on June 27. The summit commemorated the supply-chain resilience day on June 28, amid other thematic issues, and had a melee of high-profile speakers including European Commission Director-General for Trade Sabine Weyand, office of the United States Trade Representative Senior Advisor Beth Baltzan and Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Chile Director General of Multilateral Economic Affairs Marcela Otero Fuentes. USCIB policy experts – Senior VP, Innovation, Regulation and Trade Brian Lowry, Director, Investment, Trade, and China Alice Slayton Clark and Senior VP, Policy and Global Strategy Norine Kennedy moderated crucial panels during the week that focused on technology, data and supply-chain resilience.

The summit aimed to connect supply-chain, procurement, manufacturing and finance executives with high-level government representatives including ministers, policymakers and advisors. According to the organizers, the summit allows for the new reality of trade to be understood in its entirety, including geopolitical and climate-change risks.

Clark moderated the June 27 panel, “Changing tariffs and trade barriers – are you prepared?” under the theme geopolitical dynamics impacting supply chains and was chaired by Mayra Souza (TradeExperettes), Darya Galperina (Pernod Ricard), Fernanda Herrmann (Diageo) and Stewart Paterson (Hinrich Foundation).

On June 30, Lowry moderated the panel “How to eradicate forced labor in global supply chains” and participants included Romain Chambre (French Treasury), Gemma Brierley (Danone), Desirée LeClercq (Cornell University) and Evan Smith (Altana).

According to Lowry, key issues discussed was how countries, multilateral institutions and businesses can collaborate better to eradicate forced labor from global supply chains and the role of trade policy in facilitating and addressing these issues.

Kennedy moderated the panel “Delivering a greener, fairer global economy” with panelists: Aik Hoe Lim (World Trade Organization), Marion Jansen (OECD) and Elisabeth Tuerk (United Nations Economic Commission for Europe).

Key issues discussed included links between trade and the environment and how trade could offer solutions to enforcing international climate agreements.

Vinblad Speaks on Panel Co-Organized by ILO, UNEP and UNICEF at UN Stockholm+50

Published on June 22, 2022
Center: USCIB’s Agnes Vinblad

USCIB participated in the high-level international meeting, UN Stockholm+50 from June 2-3 in Stockholm, Sweden, joining over 4,000 other participants. The meeting was planned as a key milestone en route to the United Nations Conference of the Parties (COP27) in Egypt later this year. Furthermore, Stockholm+50 served as a means to reinvigorate and renew international environmental multilateralism after the worst impacts of the pandemic. The meeting commemorated the first UN Conference on the Human Environment held fifty years ago, also in Stockholm, in 1972. Topics such as the triple planetary crisis of climate change, biodiversity loss and pollution took center stage with plenty of references to the UNEA 5.2 resolution on plastics pollution, and, to principle 1 of the 1972 Stockholm Declaration – the right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment. 

Representing USCIB, and as one of the few U.S. business representatives on hand, was Policy Associate for Sustainability Agnes Vinblad. Vinblad was joined by Co-Chair of the USCIB Environment Committee Justin Perrettson (Novozymes), as well as Melissa Kopolow and Melissa Estok – USCIB members from Albright Stonebridge Group.  

The U.S. Government delegation was led by Special Presidential Envoy for Climate (SPEC) John Kerry and Assistant Secretary Monica Medina. USCIB was in regular contact with the U.S. Delegation in the lead-up to Stockholm+50 and Vinblad met with members of the delegation during the conference emphasizing the need to consider U.S. business views in these critical conversations.   

Nominated by IOE, Vinblad joined a panel co-organized by the International Labor Organization (ILO), the UN Environment Program (UNEP), and UNICEF on the role of private sector engagement in green jobs creation for youth. This panel was part of an official side event at Stockholm+50 titled Green Jobs for Youth and some of the key messages emphasized during the panel included: 

  • the green and circular economy may create 100 million jobs by 2030 – the private sector will stand at the core of this transition; 
  • the transition will have to be just to ensure that there will be a transition at all; 
  • green jobs in renewables and environmental protection are rapidly growing – a development clearly driven by the private sector.   

Vinblad was joined on the panel by Naoko Ishii, former chief executive of the Global Environment Facility and chairperson of the Global Advisory Board of the University of Tokyo; Vladislav Kaim, Children and Youth constituency to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (YOUNGO) Green Jobs focal point and UN Secretary General Youth Advisor on Climate Change; and Nate Williams, senior director, Economic Graph partnerships, LinkedIn. 

“Overall, Stockholm+50 furthered the trend toward convergence of current legally binding environmental deliberations, for example the development of a new Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework via the UN Convention on Biological Diversity and the recently adopted UNEA resolution on plastic pollution,” said Vinblad in summarizing the outcomes of the high-level UN meeting. “By allowing space to discuss all these critical topics and agreements in one joint forum, it yet again emphasized the need to act on the triple planetary crises of climate change, biodiversity loss, and pollution in a cohesive manner, guided by the true interconnectedness of these issues.” 

To find more details on the outcomes of Stockholm+50 and the ten Key Recommendations presented by the co-chairs Sweden and Kenya, please review this document.  

USCIB Comments on Proposed SEC Climate Risk Disclosure Rule, Emphasizing Considerations for Global Companies

Published on June 22, 2022

USCIB filed comments on June 17 on a proposed Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) rule on climate risk disclosure applicable to public companies. USCIB Committees on Corporate Responsibility and Labor Affairs, Corporate Governance and Environment all contributed to the development of USCIB’s SEC submission.

USCIB members support enhancing and standardizing climate-related disclosures, with due attention to ensure disclosures are material. In addition, USCIB members have made important commitments and are mobilizing action and investment to reduce GHGs and plan for near- and long-term risks, including those due to climate change.

The far-reaching proposed SEC rule has implications far beyond disclosure, according to USCIB Senior Vice President for Policy and Global Strategy Norine Kennedy. “The proposed rule will significantly impact private sector climate change planning and management practices in a variety of ways, including how companies oversee, manage, assess and mitigate climate risk and impacts of climate change, the data companies collect as well as how companies assess and validate that data,” stressed Kennedy.

Kennedy also stated: “these wider considerations raise several key questions for companies doing business internationally, and therefore warrant careful consideration, and an inclusive discussion with the business community as this proposed SEC rule is further developed.”

USCIB comments concentrated on five priority areas in the proposed rule as especially relevant to American companies across a wide range of sectors doing business in the global marketplace:

  • Inter-operability of the proposed SEC Rule with current and emerging regulations, standards, and initiatives abroad
  • Tracking and reflecting greenhouse gas emissions involved in complicated supply chains, including outside the U.S.
  • Tracking and reflecting Scope 3 Emissions, including outside the U.S.
  • Unintended consequences for future voluntary climate initiatives and goals
  • Assessing Climate and Transition Risks in multiple jurisdictions abroad

“The five areas indicated are significant considerations for the effectiveness of the proposed Rule, and if not addressed, would entail substantial costs and other burdens for U.S. business, while confusing investors with copious, non-material information,” added Kennedy. “Clarification and revision in these areas would benefit the viability of the proposed rule, while reducing unnecessary burdens on U.S. companies.”

Temperatures Soared in Geneva and So Did the WTO!

Published on June 17, 2022

Washington D.C., June 17, 2022—Despite a shaky start, the WTO negotiators delivered a historic trade deal this morning. After hours of negotiations, the 164-country organization adopted the “Geneva Package” with commitments on some very difficult issues, including pandemic response, intellectual property, fisheries, food security, electronic commerce and institutional reform.

For many, this Ministerial was about the continued viability of the WTO. Recent struggles caused by increased protectionism and previous Ministerial Conferences that created few – if any – outcomes, raised serious questions about the rules-based trading system that grew out of the GATT in 1995. Concerns have ranged from relevance to functionality to value.

The WTO adoption of a ministerial decision to waive intellectual property rights on COVID-19 vaccines raises serious questions and presents a number of risks. This waiver under the WTO TRIPs Agreement will not solve vaccine access issues but, rather, it brings dangerous implications on incentives for innovation for future health challenges and future pandemic preparedness and response.  As disappointing and counter-productive as this decision is, business continues to work to advance vaccine literacy and fight COVID-19.

The Ministerial Statement on WTO Reform has charted a path forward for the trade body that is expected to address longstanding concerns and set a process for discussions on how the WTO can be reformed to be fit for purpose.

The “Geneva Package” covers a range of topics. A group of Ministerial Declarations was adopted on WTO response to emergencies covering food insecurity; export prohibitions on World Food Programme food purchases; and WTO pandemic response and preparedness.

A partial deal to curb fishing subsidies was reached; however, it fell short of a fuller agreement that has been under negotiation for more than 20 years. The agreement addresses rules to prohibit subsidies for illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing, while action on subsidies for fuel, ship construction and other areas was left unresolved.

Negotiators wrestled to address divergent views on the continuation of a moratorium on customs duties on electronic transmissions that has been in place since 1998 but was set to expire at the end of the ministerial. A handful of countries challenged the benefits of the digital economy for the developing world, seeking to end the moratorium, gain policy space to address the digital divide and collect needed customs revenues. Ultimately, delegates agreed to an extension of the moratorium with a commitment to study development impacts and revisit the issue at the next Ministerial Conference.

“USCIB congratulates WTO Director General Ngozi and all participants in MC12 for proving that multilateralism is alive and still functional in Geneva,” said Brian Lowry, USCIB Senior Vice President, who is reporting from Geneva at the ministerial meeting as an NGO delegate.

Several concerns about agriculture went without resolution. “The lack of a declaration on these concerns was a disappointment to some but the overall success of MC12 is noteworthy,” said Lowry.

About USCIB: USCIB promotes open markets, competitiveness and innovation, sustainable development, and corporate responsibility, supported by international engagement and regulatory coherence. Its members include U.S.-based global companies and professional services firms from every sector of our economy, with operations in every region of the world. USCIB is the U.S. affiliate of the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC), the International Organization of Employers (IOE) and Business at OECD. More at www.uscib.org.

USCIB Promotes Foreign Direct Investment Qualities Initiative at OECD Ministerial

Published on June 15, 2022

The OECD Ministerial Conference Meeting (MCM) took place in Paris June 9-10, focused on “The Future We Want: Better Policies for the Next Generation and a Sustainable Transition,” with a ministerial conference statement promoting sustainable economic recovery in the post-pandemic world, transition to sustainable and inclusive development, adoption of resilient health systems, among other important initiatives. Importantly, ministers at MCM adopted roadmaps for accession to the OECD for Brazil, Bulgaria, Croatia, Peru and Romania, opening up a key opportunity for USCIB to work through Business at OECD to advance member priorities in these countries.

At a side event, “Strengthening Sustainable Investment Policies,” Chair of the USCIB Trade and Investment Committee and Chair of Business at OECD Rick Johnston promoted the OECD FDI Qualities Initiative and the newly unveiled FDI Policy Toolkit for supporting sustainability goals. According to Johnston, the FDI Qualities Initiative is not only important to OECD members states but also to the developing markets they serve. “Sustainability indicators must be part of FDI regimes or the host country will not only suffer bad investments but also collateral problems.” He underscored that the private sector takes seriously sustainable FDI and urged countries to work closely in partnership with business in adopting policies that “make sense.”

On 10 June, the OECD Council Recommendation on FDI Qualities for Sustainable Development was adopted by OECD ministers. USCIB through Business at OECD (BIAC) strongly contributed to the FDI Qualities effort. Launched in 2018, the OECD FDI Qualities Initiative aims to better link FDI with sustainable development, focused on four Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs): productivity and innovation, job quality and skills, gender equality, and decarbonization. The Initiative includes:

  • The FDI Qualities Indicators provides data measuring the impacts of investments on SDGs in host countries; the FDI Qualities Indicators report for 2022, includes new sections on the green economy and resilience to the COVID-19 pandemic.
  • The FDI Qualities Policy Toolkit is a new product to help governments identify priorities to align investment policy and institutional reforms to sustainable development goals.
  • The FDI Qualities Policy Network is a platform for stakeholder consultation and exchange on sustainable investment policies.

USCIB Joins Pledge to Enhance Cyber Resiliency and Counter Evolving Global Threats

Published on June 15, 2022

In partnership with the Coalition to Reduce Cyber Risk (CR2), USCIB was among thirty-seven companies and organizations that pledged on June 8 to enhance cyber resiliency and counter evolving cross-border cyber threats, such as the growth of ransomware.

Signers to this groundbreaking pledge from eight countries have promised to encourage the development, evolution and implementation of risk-based approaches that rely on consensus-based standards and risk management best practices, support efforts of vendors and supply chain contributors to adopt risk-based cybersecurity approaches in order to help small businesses flourish while improving the resiliency of the cyber ecosystem, incorporate widely accepted international cybersecurity standards as a foundation of cybersecurity policies and controls wherever applicable and feasible, and periodically reassess cybersecurity policies and controls against revisions to cybersecurity standards and actively participate in industry-driven initiatives to improve those standards.

“CR2 is committed to driving a globally-aligned approach for managing cyber risk. Thirty-Seven organizations from eight countries have signed the Cyber Risk Management Pledge, demonstrating the breadth of usage of international standards such as ISO/IEC 27110 and 27103, as well as the NIST Cybersecurity Framework and associated sector profiles.” said
Benjamin Flatgard, President of CR2 and Executive Director of Technology and Cybersecurity Policy and Partnerships at J.P. Morgan Chase.

He added: “Governments should embed widely used international standards at the core of their national cyber policies to facilitate a seamless approach to shared cyber risk.”

For more information on the CR2 and the pledge, or if your company or organization is interested in joining the pledge, please visit https://www.crx2.org/

USCIB Calls on International Community to Fight for Human Rights of LGBTQI+ Individuals

Published on June 1, 2022

June 1, 2022, New York, NY — On occasion of Pride Month this month, the United States Council for International Business (USCIB) re-emphasizes its committment to fight for LGBTQI+ equality and inclusion throughout the year. As stated in Article 1 of the United Nations’ Universal Declaration of Human Rights, “All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights.” USCIB and its members are committed to treating all individuals with dignity, respect and equity and call on the international community to fight for the human rights of LGBTQI+ individuals around the world.

In her statement for Pride Month, United States Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield pointed out that, “The struggle to end violence, discrimination, criminalization, and stigma against LGBTQI+ persons is a global challenge that deserves a global response. LGBTQI+ status or conduct is still criminalized in more than 70 countries or territories, and many individuals continue to face discrimination, harassment, and violence at work, at school and in public accommodations.”

According to the United Nations’ Global Campaign against Homophobia and Transphobia, more than a third of the world’s countries criminalize consensual, loving, same-sex relationships, entrenching prejudice and putting millions of people at risk of blackmail, arrest and imprisonment. In July 2013, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) launched UN Free & Equal – an unprecedented global UN public information campaign aimed at promoting equal rights and fair treatment of LGBTI people.

About USCIB: USCIB promotes open markets, competitiveness and innovation, sustainable development, and corporate responsibility, supported by international engagement and regulatory coherence. Its members include U.S.-based global companies and professional services firms from every sector of our economy, with operations in every region of the world. As the U.S. affiliate of the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC), the International Organization of Employers (IOE) and Business at OECD (BIAC), USCIB provides business views to policy makers and regulatory authorities worldwide and works to facilitate international trade and investment. More at www.uscib.org.