BIAC Archives

BIAC Chairman Talks Trade at Washington DC Forum

Published on February 4, 2014

On January 31, Phil O’Reilly, the chairman of BIAC, the Business and Industry Advisory Committee to the OECD, discussed trade policy and the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) talks in remarks to the Global Business Dialogue forum in Washington, D.C.

O’Reilly, CEO of Business New Zealand, laid out broad conceptual points to guide the TPP parties. “It’s important that we don’t let today’s politics get in the way of what will be a deal that will transform the Pacific trading environment over the next 20 to 30 years,” he said.

Citing influential research from the OECD on global supply networks and trade in value-added, the BIAC chairman stated: “The world is increasingly dominated by global value chains, so that the new glue of trade is not containers going across a wharf, they are an outcome. The new glue of trade to my mind is investment.”

To read the full text of O’Reilly’s remarks, click here.

Staff contact: Rob Mulligan

More on USCIB’s Trade and Investment Committee

Annual Business Consultations With OECD Ambassadors

Published on January 28, 2014
Participants at the annual BIAC Liaison Committee Meeting with the OECD
Participants at the annual BIAC Liaison Committee Meeting with the OECD

A delegation of business leaders from New Zealand, Japan, Canada, the United States, Brazil, Switzerland, Hungary and the Czech Republic participated in the annual Liaison Committee Meeting (LCM) between the OECD and BIAC, the Business and Industry Advisory Committee to the OECD. USCIB Senior Counsel Ronnie Goldberg and Charles Heeter, a member of USCIB’s board, took part in the January 20 meeting, which was led by BIAC Chairman Phil O’Reilly of New Zealand.

The LCM is an occasion for businesses to make their priorities and concerns known to both the OECD secretariat and ambassadors of all 34 OECD Member States. The OECD’s insight and analysis on jobs, investment and trade are vitally important for both governments and businesses, and are needed more than ever in order to take real action at national and global levels.

For 2014 and beyond, BIAC recommended that the OECD and its member governments focus on:

  • Balanced macro-economic policies and bold structural reforms
  • A comprehensive investment agenda
  • The value of multilateral trade and open markets
  • Policies that encourage job creation and skills

BIAC members will build on this week’s productive discussions in the coming months and work closely with the OECD to draw up recommendations for meaningful policy reforms to create resilient economies for inclusive societies that are due to be introduced at the 2014 OECD Forum in Paris on May 5-6.

More information about this year’s LCM can be found in BIAC’s paper Reinforcing the Case for Private Sector-Led Growth, Investment and Jobs and the related press release.

Staff contact: Ronnie Goldberg

Save the date Growth Jobs Prosperity in the Digital Age OECD Shapes the Policy Environment

Published on January 15, 2014

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Save the Date!

Growth, Jobs, & Prosperity in the Digital Age:
OECD Shapes the Policy Environment
March 10, 2014
12:00 noon – 5:00 p.m.
Reception: 5:00 – 7:00 p.m.

Microsoft Innovation & Policy Center
901 K Street, NW, 11th Floor
Washington, DC 20001

Andrew Wyckoff, Director of the OECD Directorate for Science, Technology and Industry (STI), will lead a unique business/government dialogue, which will include other top experts from the OECD’s Information, Computer and Communications Policy (ICCP) division and senior U.S. and foreign government officials. They will explore policy and regulatory challenges affecting U.S. companies that rely on ICT for business operations.

Proposed Topics

  • Internet Governance: Defending Stakeholder Principles
  • Shaping the Future of the Digital Economy: The Role of the OECD
  • Enhancing Trust and Boosting Innovation in the Digital Ecosystem
  • Global Trade & Local Rules: New Opportunities and Challenges for Digital Trade
  • Developments in Colombia’s ICT Sector, Policies and Regulations

Invited Keynotes

H.E. Diego Molano Vega – Minister of Information Technologies and Communications, Government of Colombia
Ambassador Daniel Sepulveda  – Deputy Assistant Secretary and U.S. Coordinator for International Communications and Information Policy, Bureau of Economic and Business Affairs, U.S. Department of State

Information on registration and the agenda to follow shortly.

 

Sponsored by:

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For more information, contact Erin Breitenbucher at ebreitenbucher@uscib.org or +1 202.682.7465.


For sponsorship opportunities,contact Abby Shapiro at ashapiro@uscib.org

Brought to you by:
United States Council for International Business (USCIB)
Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD)
Business and Industry Advisory Committee to the OECD (BIAC)

Business and OECD Plan Major Conference on Internet Policy

Published on December 11, 2013

At this week’s meetings in Paris of the OECD Committee on Information, Communications, and Computer Policy, OECD member states learned details of a major conference being developed USCIB, BIAC (the Business and Industry Advisory Committee to the OECD), and the OECD. The conference, “Growth, Jobs, & Prosperity in the Digital Age: OECD Shapes the Policy Environment,” will be held March 10, 2014 in Washington, D.C.

In opening remarks to the OECD Working Party on the Information Economy, Anne Carblanc
of the OECD Directorate for Science, Technology and Industry (STI) urged member governments to participate in the conference, which will highlight the OECD’s work on challenges and opportunities in growing the digital economy. “Through this program, we hope to increase the visibility of OECD work in context of Internet commons,” she said.

The half-day conference, which will be held at the Microsoft Policy and Innovation Center in Washington, will feature commentary by STI Director Andrew Wyckoff, senior U.S. officials, and leading industry experts. Their remarks will build upon topics explored during this week’s OECD meetings, including: enhancing trust and boosting innovation in the digital ecosystem, jobs and entrepreneurship, defending stakeholder principles in Internet governance and ensuring cross-border data flows. (The conference agenda will be available soon.)

By mid-week, OECD members had made progress on a number of important initiatives, according to Barbara Wanner, USCIB’s vice president for ICT policy. These include:

–          further work on a survey study on the economics of, “Copyright in the Age of the Internet”

–          agreement to revise the OECD 2002 Security Guidelines, building on the year-long work of the Security Experts Group – to which USCIB members directly contributed\

–          possible work on new study on the economics of the transition to IPv6 – the latest revision of the Internet Protocol, which provides an identification and location system for computers on networks and routes traffic across the Internet.

BIAC and USCIB representatives provided informed commentary on each of these projects and will monitor them closely as they progress.

Staff contact: Barbara Wanner

More on USCIB’s Information, Communications and Technology Committee

Fighting for Pro-FDI Policies at the OECD

Published on December 10, 2013

Shaun Donnelly, USCIB’s vice president for investment and financial services, led the a team of representatives from BIAC, the Business and Industry Advisory Committee to the OECD, at last week’s “stakeholder” consultations with  the OECD Investment Committee in Paris.

Sparring with trade union and NGO representatives, who also have stakeholder status at the OECD, Donnelly urged OECD member governments to adopt consistent, predictable pro-investment policies and to speak up forcefully on behalf of the unique contributions of foreign direct investment to economic growth, competitiveness and jobs.

Donnelly highlighted the importance of high-standard international investment agreements, including provisions for arbitration and investor/state dispute settlement to resolve major investment problems. The BIAC team strongly encouraged the OECD secretariat and member governments to give a higher priority and greater visibility to its pro-investment policy efforts in the overall OECD work program.

Staff contact: Shaun Donnelly

More on USCIB’s Trade and Investment Committee

At OECD Forum USCIB Spotlights Prerequisites for Green Investments

Published on December 6, 2013
USCIB’s Norine Kennedy addresses the OECD green growth forum.
USCIB’s Norine Kennedy addresses the OECD green growth forum.

Norine Kennedy, USCIB’s vice president for energy, environment and strategic international engagement, took part in the OECD Green Growth and Sustainable Development Forum on December 5-6 in Paris. Representing the Business and Industry Advisory Committee to the OECD (BIAC), she spoke on a panel on “Unlocking Private Sector Investment in Green Growth.”

Kennedy highlighted the importance of providing enabling frameworks and policies that work in synergy with trade and investment rules. “Policies to green economic activity have to emphasize multilateral approaches, and function in globalized markets to enable business to deliver the full potential of innovation and economic prosperity,” she said.

The BIAC delegation also updated the forum on the International Business Green Economies Dialogue
(GED) initiative, indicating its ongoing work to provide business views and foster thoughtful discussion of how to design greener economic policy approaches into the UN Post 2015 Development Agenda and SDGs. GED Chair Brian Flannery led a discussion on supporting investment in clean energy infrastructure, in which both government and private sector speakers considered the synergies between public-private sector partnerships, overseas development assistance and regulatory and market signals. (Click here to see slides from Flannery’s presentation.)

The overarching theme of this year’s GGSD Forum is encouraging and leveraging private investment for green infrastructure and technologies, including innovation policies. BIAC has worked with the OECD Green Growth project since it’s inception, engaging on the broad range of themes that this horizontal program encompasses, such as green taxes, green jobs, green procurement and green technologies.”

Staff contact: Norine Kennedy

More on USCIB’s Environment Committee

OECD Economic Outlook 2013

Published on November 21, 2013

On November 19 in Paris, OECD Secretary General Angel Gurria released the organization’s major annual global economic projection, the 2013 Economic Outlook. One of the OECD’s benchmark publications, the OECD report is used by member governments and economists worldwide as an important forecasting tool.

Information on the 2013 OECD outlook has been shared throughout the Business and Industry Advisory Committee to the OECD’s worldwide network. Click here for the OECD’s press materials, which include a link to the full report. Click here for an informative slide deck summarizing the report’s key findings and predictions.

Staff contacts: Shaun Donnelly

More on USCIB’s Trade and Investment Committee

BIAC Survey on Business and Gender Diversity

Published on October 10, 2013

USCIB would appreciate your input for the BIAC Survey on Business and Gender Diversity, which should take just a few minutes to complete.

BIAC (the Business and Industry Advisory Committee to the OECD) and Deloitte are partnering on this survey to gauge the extent of change in advancing women into more senior positions that may have occurred within companies and within markets. They also wish to assess the development and impact of government and regulatory support to these efforts over the last few years.

The survey comes in follow-up to a 2012 BIAC report, produced in conjunction with the American Chamber of Commerce in France, entitled Putting All Our Minds to Work: Harnessing the Gender Dividend, which presented a business case for promoting female talent, with examples of how businesses in OECD member countries are advancing women’s empowerment.

The BIAC survey will remain open until October 31.

Staff contact: Justine Badimon

BIAC Nanotechnology Committee to Meet in Washington DC

Published on September 9, 2013

As nanotechnology continues to rapidly develop in a wide range of different sectors, governments, business and international organizations are increasingly focusing on how to stimulate its development while at the same time considering potential environment, health and safety issues.

The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) advises on emerging policy-relevant issues in science, technology and innovation related to the responsible development and use of nanotechnology, and also addresses the safety of manufactured nanomaterials. It also helps ensure that the approaches for hazard, exposure and risk assessment for manufactured nanomaterials are of a high quality, science-based and internationally harmonized. Since the establishment of the OECD nanotechnology program, the Business and Industry Advisory Committee to the OECD (BIAC) has been an active partner, including in the OECD Sponsorship Program for the testing of selected manufactured nanomaterials.

As the OECD work continues to expand, the BIAC Nanotechnology Committee will have its annual Committee meeting in Washington, D.C. on September 19-20. The meeting will include a strategic discussion on challenges and opportunities our members encounter at the national or regional level, next steps with regard to the OECD sponsorship program, the future orientations of work related to science, technology and innovation as well as cross-cutting issues and work in other international organizations.

Speakers at the meeting, which will include a review of the first round of U.S.-EU talks under the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership, include Rachel Shub, senior director for EU regulatory affairs at the office of the U.S. Trade Representative, and Julia Doherty, USTR’s senior director for technical barriers to trade.

Staff contact: Helen Medina

More on USCIB’s Nanotechnology Committee

BIAC Consultation on the BEPS Action Plan

Published on September 9, 2013

On October 1, the Business and Industry Advisory Committee to the OECD (BIAC) will hold an international business consultation on the Base Erosion and Profit Sharing (BEPS) Action Plan together with governments and the OECD Secretariat at the OECD in Paris. The meeting agenda will cover the full BEPS Action Plan, with the aim to provide business input early in the BEPS process. BIAC has launched a BEPS web resource to provide full background information for this important project.

The OECD BEPS Action Plan was endorsed by G20 Finance Ministers on July 19, 2013 in Moscow and subsequently by the G20 governments in Saint Petersburg in September. The Action Plan sets out 15 areas of work to be undertaken across a range of tax issues, including the digital economy, transfer pricing, coherence of corporate income taxation, as well as transparency, certainty and predictability of taxation. The timeline for BEPS is ambitious, aiming for completion by December 2015, and will integrate a number of related on-going OECD projects on fundamental tax issues, among them the definition of permanent establishment, and the transfer pricing of intangibles.

This fall, the BIAC Tax Committee will continue to provide input to the OECD on the entire range of BEPS related issues. BIAC also continues its dialogue on tax with emerging economies, including China, India and Brazil. On October 7-8, BIAC, together with its Brazilian Observer CNI, the National Confederation of Industry of Brazil, will hold a conference on Brazilian and International Tax Issues with the participation of business, the OECD and the Brazilian tax authorities.

Staff contact: Carol Doran Klein

More on USCIB’s Tax Committee