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Berlin Meetings Kick Off Germany’s G20 Host Year

Published on December 12, 2016
Co-Chair Kathryn Porter, Hilton International; Co-Chair Mthunzie Mdwaba, IOE VP for Africa; Co-Chair Peter Robinson; Chair Gerhard Braun, Vice President of BDA
Co-Chair Kathryn Porter, Hilton International; Co-Chair Mthunzie Mdwaba, IOE VP for Africa; Co-Chair Peter Robinson; Chair Gerhard Braun, Vice President of BDA

On December 1, the first full meeting of B20 members during Germany’s G20 host year was held in Berlin. The B20 brings together private-sector representatives from each of the G20 nations and provides official input and advice to the G20. This year’s G20 Summit will be held July 7-8 in Hamburg. The B20 Summit will take place May 2-3 in Berlin.

USCIB President and CEO Peter M. Robinson took part in the December 1 event in his capacity as a Co-chair of the B20 Employment and Education Task Force, which met in parallel with all other B20 Task Forces, and for which the IOE serves as Network Partner. The International Chamber of Commerce (ICC), for which USCIB also serves as U.S. affiliate, serves as Network Partner for other B20 Task Forces including Trade and Investment.

Because of the compressed schedule for 2017 – the G20 Summit has generally been held in the fall – Germany is proceeding with an accelerated work plan, and has entered into close cooperation with the B20 in support of a manageable yet ambitious agenda.

The December 1 conference brought together all Task Forces and cross-thematic groups. It gave members of various B20 working groups the opportunity to continue their work on policy proposals, and featured addresses by leading G20 and B20 representatives. The conference was opened by German Minister of Finance Wolfgang Schäuble and B20 Chairman Jürgen Heraeus. Lars-Henrik Röller, Head of the Federal Chancellery’s Economic and Finance Division and G7/G20 Sherpa, also participated. His B20 counterpart, Stormy-Annika Mildner of BDI, played an important organizational role in the conference.

B20 Germany is co-hosted by the Federation of German Industries (BDI), the Confederation of German Employers’ Associations (BDA) and the Association of German Chambers of Commerce and Industry (DIHK)—all three USCIB partners in its global network for Business at OECD/BIAC, International Organization of Employers (IOE), and ATA Carnet, respectively.

The theme of the Conference was “Resilience, Responsibility, Responsiveness—Towards a Future-Oriented, Sustainable World Economy.” The B20 issued a statement calling for open markets and inclusive growth, entitled “Make Trade Work for Everybody. Initiated in response to troubling emotional rhetoric taking place around the world, the statement began with:

“The B20 is deeply concerned about current anti-globalization sentiments, which can be witnessed in many countries around the world. Increasingly, communities are voicing strong opposition to trade liberalization and international investment. We need to take these concerns seriously and support communities during times of change and disruption. At the same time, seemingly easy solutions risk having long-term negative consequences for business, workers, and consumers. We urge governments to resist the temptation to resort to protectionist measures such as trade barriers or investment restrictions”

Click here to read a B20 Statement for Open Markets and Inclusive Growth

G20 Scorecard

At the Berlin meetings, the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) unveiled the latest edition of ICC G20 Business Scorecard, rating G20 responsiveness to key business policy priorities for growing the global economy, while revealing important missed opportunities G20 nations group to advance international trade and key international policy frameworks.

ICC Secretary General John Danilovich noted that ICC “is encouraged to see that G20 work is becoming increasingly responsive to priority recommendations put forward each year by business that aims to spur economic growth and job creation.”

The 2016 ICC Scorecard examined 25 business priorities developed during the Chinese B20 cycle and rates the G20’s responsiveness across seven policy areas. The overall score of 2.3 out of 3.0 across all seven policy categories marks the highest overall score since ICC began its monitoring. However, despite the positive overall trend, progress is shown to be uneven.

Click here to view the full results of the ICC Scorecard.

Business Welcomes OECD PISA Survey Results

Published on December 12, 2016

OECD’s Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) is a triennial international survey which aims to evaluate education systems worldwide by testing the skills and knowledge of 15-year-old students. In 2015 over half a million students, representing twenty-eight million 15-year-olds in seventy-two countries and economies, took the internationally agreed two-hour test. Students were assessed in science, mathematics, reading, collaborative problem solving and financial literacy.

Commenting on the public release of PISA’s 2015 survey results, Charles Fadel, chair of the Business at OECD (BIAC) Education Committee said, “Employers around the world value the importance of data, and PISA, as a unique instrument in its reach and quality, is the respected influential benchmark which BIAC supports.  However, as the world continues to evolve, so must PISA. BIAC will continue to collaborate with the OECD in expanding and improving measures in other skills and areas relevant for employability, such as entrepreneurship, engineering, creativity, critical thinking, ethics and leadership.”

Education and training are top priorities for business especially in a rapidly changing dynamic work place of today.  Investment in training and access to quality education for all are essential to foster innovation and inclusive growth in our economies. PISA is an important benchmark and comparative analysis towards this goal. The link to the 2015 survey results can be accessed here.

For further information on Business at OECD work on skills and education please visit: BIAC Education Survey and BIAC Character Survey.

USCIB Contributes to Annual Internet Governance Forum

Published on December 12, 2016
BarbaraWanner_IGF2016
Barbara Wanner, USCIB’s Vice President for ICT Policy moderating a workshop at this year’s Internet Governance Forum in Mexico

More than 3,000 stakeholders from business, government, civil society, the technical community and academia gathered December 6-9 in Guadalajara, Mexico for the 11th Internet Governance Forum (IGF). The four-day conference featured wide-ranging discussions under the overarching theme, “Enabling Inclusive and Sustainable Growth,” a theme deliberately chosen to enable IGF participants to highlight the importance of the Internet and ICTs in realizing the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) set forth in the United Nations’ 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

This was the first IGF meeting since the United Nations renewed the forum’s mandate for another 10 years as part of the 2015 WSIS +10 Review, last year’s UN conference to take stock of commitments made at the pivotal 2005 World Summit on the Information Society. USCIB members joined global business colleagues under the aegis of ICC-BASIS (Business Action to Support the Information Society) in urging that the IGF not remain static, but continue to evolve in the coming decade as viable multi-stakeholder entity.

Joseph Alhadeff (Oracle), chair of the ICC Digital Economy Commission and vice-chair of USCIB’s ICT (Information, Communications and Technology) Policy Committee, stated that this approach to involve “informed contributions from business, government, civil society, and the technical community will continue to be key to ensuring that policies and regulations do not create unintended consequences or unnecessary burdens that impair the potential of emerging technologies to propel sustainable and inclusive development.”

The week culminated with strong endorsements from all IGF participants for a comprehensive approach to tackling obstacles to inclusive growth. Barbara Wanner, USCIB’s vice president for ICT Policy, emphasized that “a comprehensive approach should feature a shared commitment to Internet openness, expanded public-private partnerships, more focused attention to both supply- and demand-related issues affecting Internet deployment, including digital literacy, and enlightened regulation and legal frameworks.”

Wanner said IGF participants acknowledged that much of this will continue to require multi-billion-dollar investments in both infrastructure and local content to reach all communities. “They also emphasized the urgent need to address security issues undermining user confidence and trust and in the Internet,” she said. “A refrain throughout the week’s discussions was that vibrant, multi-stakeholder dialogue will best enable the Internet community to navigate these many challenges.”

Workshops on the role of women, “demand-side” capacity

USCIB organized two IGF workshops that went to the heart of the inclusive growth theme. Wanner moderated “An ‘Internet of Women’ by 2020: WSIS Vision to Reality,” a discussion involving 10 representatives from all stakeholder groups who examined the factors causing a significant and persistent gender digital divide that has hampered the ability of women to become productive members of the digital economy. The WSIS Outcome Document calls for achieving gender equality in Internet users by 2020. USCIB Members Hibah Kamal-Grayson (Google), Carolyn Nguyen (Microsoft), and Jackie Ruff (Verizon) discussed what their companies are doing to bridge the gender digital divide by improving digital literacy and ICT-related professional opportunities for women. All agreed that the challenge of gender digital equality cannot be tackled effectively by any one company, organization, or stakeholder group. Rather, this requires collaboration among all stakeholder groups, partnerships between business and government, linkages between local communities and national governments, and coordination across various international organizations and a need for a mix of both bottom-up and top-down initiatives.

Another workshop, “Demand Side Capacity for Internet Deployment,” explored efforts in regions as diverse as Africa and Latin America to build “demand-side” capacity,” a term referring to the development of local content and services in a variety of languages and efforts aimed at improving digital literacy, among other measures. This workshop was moderated by Ellen Blackler (The Walt Disney Company.) The WSIS Outcome Document recognized that such demand-side initiatives serve as essential complements to government efforts to improve competition, expand infrastructure and connectivity, and other “supply-side” policies. However, numerous surveys of Internet use in developing countries have indicated that, even when people have Internet access they seldom use it because they believe Internet access would have limited value due to a lack of content relevant to their interests and needs. Workshop panelists looked broadly at stakeholder efforts to create locally relevant content and considered challenges they face, ranging from weak digital literacy, to phone affordability, to problems securing venture capital financing. In particular, they maintained that public-private partnerships help to ensure that the content is locally relevant.

Next year’s IGF will be held in Geneva, Switzerland, December 18-21, 2017.

WTO Members Fail to Wrap Up Green Goods Agreement

Published on December 4, 2016
WTO headquarters in Geneva
WTO headquarters in Geneva

USCIB and other business groups expressed disappointment at the failure to conclude negotiations toward an international Environmental Goods Agreement (EGA) among more than a dozen leading members of the World Trade Organization. A concluded agreement promised to free up trade in a wide variety of environmentally friendly goods and technologies.

“This is a missed opportunity, both for the environment and for the international trading system,” stated USCIB President and CEO Peter Robinson. “To business, it is clear that achieving greener growth depends on the widespread deployment of innovative technologies and management systems through more open trade and investment. These can help to address climate risks, improve food, water and energy security, and offer cleaner goods to consumers in developing countries. A conclusion of the EGA negotiations would have been a big step in that direction.”

The Coalition for Green Trade, of which USCIB is a leading member, issued a press release stating, in part: “The failure to conclude this deal represents a significant missed opportunity for the global economy, delaying positive contributions to job growth, innovation and environmental goals until a later date.”

According to Eva Hampl, USCIB’s director of trade and investment policy, who was onsite in Geneva for the conclusion of the talks, negotiations fell apart over a disagreement over product lists. “While we end the year without an agreement in hand, we are hopeful that the parties will resume negotiations in the near future,” said Hampl.

China had a number of unique concerns with respect to the types of goods to be covered by the EGA as well as some agreed-upon text provision. In the end, China failed to come to the table with a constructive proposal, in the face of a workable solution as presented by the Chair of the negotiations.

USCIB has worked closely with a variety of international partners to push for ambitious approaches to environmental challenges that take account of the unique contributions of the business community and the multilateral trading system. At the recent COP22 climate talks in Marrakesh, USCIB joined over 40 other business groups in a joint declaration of private-sector action on climate.

US Unlikely to Sign New Global Tax Treaty

Published on December 2, 2016

Businessman hand touching tax word on virtual screen the concept of online taxation.

USCIB’s vice president for taxation policy, Carol Doran Klein, was quoted extensively in a November 30 Bloomberg BNA article on the OECD’s multilateral tax treaty, known as the Multilateral Convention to Implement Tax Treaty-Related Measures to Prevent Base Erosion and Profit Shifting. According to Doran Klein, while many countries are likely to sign on to parts of the treaty, it is unlikely the U.S. will sign on mainly because the multilateral instrument (MLI) “does not have a lot to offer the U.S. Many of the provisions are variations on treaty policies that the U.S. has been implementing for decades.”

Regarding effect on business, Doran Klein said it will be a challenge for companies and their advisers to analyze the changes made by the MLI to individual bilateral treaties. “This is actually a huge issue, because it may be difficult to work through exactly what the new treaty language is.” Doran Klein said she is worried that the tax treaty area will wind up like the trade area. The trade agreements are very difficult to read and understand, because they refer back to other agreements for basic principles. “I believe that the reason they do that is they do not want to open up the fundamentals of the old agreements to complete renegotiation, but it is therefore extremely difficult to understand the obligations.”

To read the full story, visit Bloomberg BNA (subscription required).

ICC Meeting With Head of UNEP Discusses Private Sector Approaches to Resource Efficiency

Published on November 29, 2016

The International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) and the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) held a “Sustainable Resource Management: Business Opportunities and Economic Potential” meeting in Paris last week with 120 policymakers, industry leaders, and scientists to discuss the economic potential of resource efficiency and its role in putting the world on a more sustainable development track in line with the Sustainable Development Goals, and recommendations of last year’s UN Environmental Assembly (UNEA).

This was the first major international business meeting with UNEP’s new leader, Erik Solheim, formerly head of the OECD’s Development Assistance Committee. The Sustainable Resource Management meeting was organized as part of UNEP’s on-going dialogue with business on environmental sustainability. In his opening remarks at the event, Solheim emphasized that “practical solutions will happen in business.”

USCIB was represented at the meeting by Mike Michener, CropLife International, who serves as one of two elected business and industry representatives on UNEP’s Major Groups Facilitating Committee (MGFC), along with Norine Kennedy, USCIB’s vice president for energy and environment.

USCIB Welcomes New Staff Members

Published on November 29, 2016

USCIB welcomes Mia Lauter, who joined USCIB’s Policy Department in New York to work on Environment, Climate Change, Product Policy and Innovation issue areas. She joins another recent hire, Elizabeth Kim, who joined earlier this year to focus on Corporate Responsibility, Labor, APEC, Competition and China.

Additionally, Kira Yevtukhova has succeeded Chris Zoia as Communications Manager after working in USCIB’s Policy Department for over five years. She will be based in USCIB’s Washington office. Chris has taken a new position with the Freedom Fund.

Please join us in welcoming and congratulating Mia, Elizabeth and Kira.

Business Supports Expansion of APEC Privacy Rules

Published on November 29, 2016

Global Communications. 3D rendering.

Eight major business groups — including USCIB, Japan’s Keidanren and ICC Mexico — released a joint statement calling on all Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) economies to expand participation in the APEC Cross-Border Privacy Rules (CBPR) system. An important priority for USCIB, the CBPR is a high-standard and enforceable privacy code of conduct that facilitates cross-border trade and ensures strong privacy protection of personal information. The statement commended the work done by policy makers in promoting the CBPR system, and urged the 21 APEC economies to commit to the system during 2017.

CBPRs are based on the internationally respected APEC Privacy Framework and endorsed by APEC Leaders since 2011. They are an interoperable, enforceable, and high-standard privacy code of conduct that facilitates cross-border trade of goods and services and ensures that strong privacy protection will follow personal information across the Asia-Pacific region. By creating a certification system that bridges the privacy regimes of each participating economy in a cost-effective and scalable way, the CBPRs allow participating companies to focus their time and resources on innovating, serving customers, and pursuing their business objectives.

USCIB President and CEO Peter Robinson attended the annual APEC CEO summit and various side events alongside USCIB Vice President Helen Medina. Robinson featured the joint statement in his meetings with US government officials, as well as other APEC government representatives on the sidelines of the recent APEC Leaders meeting in Lima, Peru. “We applaud the support that APEC Leaders and Ministers have demonstrated towards expanding participation in the CBPRs. We believe this reaffirms both APEC’s recognition of the importance of data flows to trade and investment in the region and its commitment to building bridges between national privacy regulatory regimes. We see great potential for the CBPRs to serve as a platform for a truly global system of interoperable and robust privacy protection,” noted Robinson. USCIB members certified under the CBPR include Apple Inc., Cisco Systems, Hewlett-Packard Enterprise, HP Inc., IBM, and Merck and Co., Inc.

The CBPRs signal to governments in the Asia-Pacific and in other parts of the world that mutual cooperation between like-minded economies can serve as a rational, effective international approach to high-standard privacy and data protection, without requiring data to be stored, managed, or otherwise processed locally or prohibiting data transfers to other markets.

The next meeting of APEC’s Data Privacy Subgroup, which developed the CBPR framework and continues to oversee its implementation, will be held in 2017 in Vietnam. USCIB will work with APEC member economies to support these commitments and raise awareness with officials and stakeholders on the benefits of CBPRs, increasing participation and helping APEC economies set the standard for how to do privacy right globally.

APEC CEO Summit Highlights Need for Continued US Leadership

Published on November 21, 2016
USCIB's Peter Robinson and Helen Medina in Lima
USCIB’s Peter Robinson and Helen Medina in Lima

The annual Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) CEO summit, which wrapped up over the weekend in Lima, Peru, coincided with concerns about an uncertain U.S. role in Asia and the Pacific at an especially pivotal time. But according to USCIB President and CEO Peter Robinson, who attended the summit and various side events alongside USCIB Vice President Helen Medina, there were also signs of progress and hope for continued U.S. leadership in the region.

“I believe that, despite the political rhetoric back home, our trading partners still want and expect the United States to play a leading role in APEC and in the region as a whole, and so do we,” said Robinson. “Now is the time to work even more closely together to promote trade and regional solutions that meet the needs of all parties.”

Under the leadership of the National Center for APEC, USCIB and other business groups joined a diverse array of American CEOs and other executives (including numerous USCIB members) in Lima. Throughout 2016, USCIB has addressed a number of key priorities through APEC, including chemicals policy, advertising self-regulation, data privacy, customs, digital trade, and women in the economy. Our members and staff have engaged in several APEC working groups, including the Chemical Dialogue, APEC Business-Customs Dialogue, Customs Procedures Virtual Working Group, Alliance for Supply Chain Connectivity, the Electronic Commerce Steering Group and Data Privacy Subgroup.

Robinson gave introductory remarks at a roundtable hosted by the U.S.-APEC Business Coalition and USCIB member Deloitte, “Driving APEC Growth Through Competitive Services and High-Quality Regulations.” The focus of Peru’s 2016 host year was on quality growth and human development. Within this context, particular attention has been devoted to the services sector, which represents a large and expanding portion of the overall economic growth and development. The event, moderated by Deloitte Global Chairman David Cruikshank, focused on APEC’s current work in the areas of services and good regulatory practices, including the APEC Services Cooperation Framework and APEC Services Competitiveness Roadmap, as well as further opportunities to drive the service sector in 2017.

Other speakers included John Andersen, deputy assistant secretary of Commerce for the Western Hemisphere; John Drummond, head of the OECD’s Trade in Services Division; and Ho Meng Kit, CEO of the Singapore Business Federation; and Vietnam ABAC Chair for 2017 Hoang Van Dung. Key themes addressed included the slowing pace of liberalization in services in the APEC area, its impact on small and medium-sized businesses, and the need to reinvigorate trade.

While in Lima, Robinson and Medina participated in business meetings with the prime minister and finance minister of Peru, the president of Vietnam and Canada’s international trade minister. They also joined APEC Business Coalition members at meeting with key U.S. Congressional staff attending the summit, as well as Deputy U.S. Trade Representative Robert Holleyman, where the post-election focus was on crafting better trade deals that can address concerns voiced by everyday Americans.

Robinson and Medina attended a dinner hosted by Eli Lilly, Pfizer, Abbott and Merck KGaA, on “Driving Sustainable Health Systems to Achieve Quality Growth and Human Development.” The dinner, which featured remarks by Peruvian Health Minister Patricia García Funegra and Matt Matthews, the U.S. senior official for APEC, highlighted the region’s shared achievements to advance the APEC health agenda, which carries significant trade and investment, innovation and capacity-building components.

Statement on cross-border privacy rules

During the final day of the APEC CEO summit, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg urged world leaders to invest in connecting citizens to the Internet. In a related move, eight major business groups — including USCIB, Japan’s Keidanren and ICC Mexico — released a joint statement calling on all APEC economies to expand participation in the APEC Cross-Border Privacy Rules (CBPR) system. An important priority for USCIB, the CBPR is a high-standard and enforceable privacy code of conduct that facilitates cross-border trade and ensures strong privacy protection of personal information. The statement commended the work done by policy makers in promoting the CBPR system, and urged the 21 APEC economies to commit to the system during 2017.

Chinese President Xi Jinping addresses the CEO Summit.
Chinese President Xi Jinping addresses the CEO Summit.

Chinese President Xi Jinping delivered a keynote address with a strong message in favor of open and free trade, saying that the Asia-Pacific region must lead the way in the face of slowing global growth and rising protectionism.

“President Xi clearly demonstrated that China is ready to take a leading role in APEC integration at a time when the U.S. appears to be reevaluating how it intends to engage with its economic and trading partners,” observed USCIB’s Medina.

But Robinson said that USCIB, NCAPEC and members of the U.S. APEC Business Coalition remain well-positioned to champion U.S. business interests in APEC. “The time and energy we have invested in APEC has resulted in some important accomplishments,” he said. “Whatever happens regarding a specific trade deal, the fact is that we in the United States still need APEC, and APEC needs us. I continue to have high hopes for APEC as we approach 2017.”

Business Hits Chinese Cybersecurity Rules as Protectionist

Published on November 17, 2016

China - Flag on Button of Black Keyboard.Earlier this month, China adopted broad cybersecurity regulations giving law enforcement enhanced authority to access private data and requiring data to be stored servers located in China. In a letter to Chinese authorities, USCIB and some 40 other industry groups from around the world protested the measure, saying it would wall off China’s internet and unfairly hamper access to the Chinese market.

The letter said Chinese regulators used security as a pretext for enacting protectionist trade policies to benefit Chinese industry, and urged China to to respect its World Trade Organization commitments. “We are concerned that these commitments are undermined by public statements and other forms of high-level guidance that call for indigenous and controllable substitution plans for information technology products and services,” the industry letter stated.

USCIB is organizing a high-level government and business dialogue on US-China cybersecurity, to be held December 16 in Washington, D.C. White House and other government officials will be invited to brief members on the ongoing U.S.-China cyber dialogue and discuss specific member priorities. Please contact Eva Hampl for additional information.