Many groups represent business in Washington and internationally, but few can match USCIB’s experience, geographic reach and credibility.

By Peter M. Robinson

People often ask me to explain how USCIB can help their company, and what distinguishes us from other business associations. Even our members sometimes ask us how best to articulate USCIB’s value to colleagues who are not as familiar with us.

USCIB does something no other business group does: we represent our members’ business interests around the world. We provide access and influence to regulatory bodies and policy makers at the national and international levels. We work to open markets, foster innovation and fair competition, and secure the free flow of information so our member companies can succeed wherever they do business.

Our role is essential because business is increasingly international. We understand that the success of our member companies increasingly depends on the ability to proactively shape the rules and regulations that will influence the way they do business in the years ahead.

Our approach is built upon our commitment to the core values of open markets, competitiveness and innovation, sustainable development and corporate responsibility. Those values support our key objectives of open trade and investment and job creation, in order to create a better world for our children. We see these values and objectives as best supported through international engagement and prudent regulation.

Many organizations represent U.S. business interests in Washington, D.C., and others do so internationally. But few, if any, can match USCIB’s experience and geographic reach, or the credibility we have earned in successfully advocating on behalf of members from all sectors and industries, in an increasingly complex global regulatory environment.

We could not do this without the global platform provided by our network of business affiliates – including the International Chamber of Commerce, the International Organization of Employers, and the Business and Industry Advisory Committee to the OECD. These groups open doors overseas, provide a “seat at the table” with key international bodies and allow us to rally foreign business opinion in support of our members’ views. Working through this unmatched network, USCIB is a proven, trusted and credible partner with foreign governments and international regulatory bodies at all levels.

The breadth of issues we cover is remarkable – ranging from climate change to Internet governance, from human rights to the conditions and rules affecting overseas investment, from tax policy to customs and trade facilitation, to name but a few. Our comprehensive policy agenda and our flexible structure give us a unique ability to work on cross-cutting and complex business issues.

Influencing policy and regulatory outcomes on a global scale requires proactivity and sustained commitment. USCIB’s consensus-based approach ensures that our views and positions represent the broadest possible range of companies across all affected industries. And our long-term outlook allows us to “see around corners,” effectively helping our members tackle tomorrow’s business challenges today.

Another thing that sets USCIB apart is our working relationship with organized labor and civil society groups. With the urgent need for job creation high on the international agenda, our work in the tripartite International Labor Organization, as well as in the OECD, where labor also has a voice, gives us a platform for pursuing shared interests in promoting growth and employment.

Finally, when distinguishing USCIB from other U.S. trade associations and business organizations, I emphasize that this not an either/or proposition. As a broad-based, globally engaged, consensus-driven and “outside the beltway” organization, we frequently complement and leverage positions taken by our member companies in their vertically oriented industry associations and other business groups. We also work collaboratively with these groups in numerous coalition efforts.

Think of us an “amplifier.” Where an industry’s policy positions in Washington touch international issues and fit with USCIB’s core values, we can help create a broad international consensus in support of these positions through our global platforms.

In a nutshell, USCIB’s mission is to open the world for American business. We welcome your support, and if you’re not already a member of USCIB, please consider joining. (Call 212.703.5064 or e-mail membership@uscib.org.) Working together, we can ensure business leadership and engagement in building a better, more prosperous world.

Other recent postings from Mr. Robinson:

The OECD at 50 (Spring 2011)

Dealing With State-Owned Enterprises (Winter 2010-2011)

Leadership’s Legacy, and Its Promise (Fall 2010)

Jobs Take Center Stage (Summer 2010)

Winter 2010-2011

With multinationals going up against government-owned firms around the world, how can we ensure “competitive neutrality”?

By Peter M. Robinson

Around the world, companies face the challenge of competing with state-owned enterprises (SOEs), which are often favored by their governments in official policy and through less obvious means.  In China, for example, state-owned companies often enjoy preferential treatment in such areas as government procurement, subsidies, taxation, export financing, and the application and enforcement of regulations.

And it’s not just China – such practices are unfortunately still common in many countries.  This is problematic enough when the competition is on the SOE’s home turf.  But multinational firms are increasingly going up against SOEs in third markets, with governments sometimes lending strong support for bids.  In such circumstances, how can we ensure fair and equal treatment?

This is a high-priority issue for the U.S. government.  In addition, the 34-nation Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development is investigating the possibility of building upon its existing guidelines for governments on SOEs, which underscore the importance of “competitive neutrality.”  With many emerging nations increasingly drawn to models of “state capitalism” in the wake of the financial crisis, this work is taking on new urgency.

In December, we hosted an in-depth discussion of the challenge of SOEs with OECD Secretary General Angel Gurría and U.S. Under Secretary of State for Economic Affairs Robert Hormats.  The get-together provided a timely opportunity for USCIB members to voice their views and share intelligence on a topic not generally tackled by other industry groups.

Mr. Gurría drew attention to a recent report on investment protectionism from the OECD and the UN Conference on Trade and Development.  That report notes that, while barriers to cross-border investment worldwide have not increased in an overt manner, there are signs that countries are becoming more insular – by rejecting deals, by imposing capital controls and through regulations.

Recent OECD work has produced a stocktaking of concerns about competitive neutrality.  These include: available remedies to counter anti-competitive behavior; reasons why SOEs may operate on an uneven playing field; and discussion of the relevance of the existing OECD guidelines to ensure competitive neutrality in such cases.

At the meeting, USCIB members readily provided examples of how U.S. companies have been squeezed out of national markets, and specific deals, by state-owned enterprises, and encouraged enhanced attention to this issue in the OECD.

Mr. Hormats reiterated the importance of this problem to the U.S. government, saying it was moving faster than discussions of policies on how to deal with SOEs.  He welcomed the thoughts of members to press forward in the OECD and elsewhere to establish disciplines and raise awareness.

USCIB and our affiliate BIAC (Business and Industry Advisory Committee to the OECD) have urged that this subject be accorded higher priority on the OECD agenda – a point reiterated by USCIB members at our meeting with Messrs. Gurría and Hormats.

For example, we would like to see the OECD define competitive neutrality in detail.  Other options being considered include monitoring the implementation of the SOE guidelines, leading to peer review and best practices, and possibly inviting non-member countries to participate in further OECD work, including monitoring.

Such actions could help bridge a broad gap between the rules applied to the private sector and those applied to state-owned firms in many key markets.  Stay tuned.

Mr. Robinson’s bio and contact information

Other recent postings from Mr. Robinson:

Leadership’s Legacy, and Its Promise (Fall 2010)

Jobs Take Center Stage (Summer 2010)

Reflections From Copenhagen (Spring 2010)

Now More Than Ever: Competitiveness and Innovation Matter (Winter 2009/2010)

Fall 2010

The recipients of USCIB’s International Leadership Award have helped to shape the world we live in today.

On important anniversaries, it’s customary to look back, to reflect on all that’s occurred over the years, and how things have changed.  As we commemorate the 30th anniversary of USCIB’s International Leadership Award, presented this year to 3M CEO George Buckley at USCIB’s Annual Dinner on November 3, we certainly have plenty to look back on.

I’d like to use this space to look at how this “legacy of leadership” – the priorities and passions of the 30 individuals who have been honored with the award – shapes the world we live in today, and provides guidance for dealing with the global business challenges ahead.

Since its inception in 1980, the International Leadership Award has represented, first and foremost, an unassailable commitment to open markets, to expanding international trade and investment.  In his acceptance remarks, our very first honoree, Reginald Jones of GE, focused on the vital importance of exports to the U.S. economy, calling increased trade essential  in achieving sustained economic growth, improved productivity, technological advancement and job creation.  Certainly no one could argue with the continued relevance of that message.

Three years later, David Rockefeller put the trade/growth imperative in the context of Cold War tensions, noting that supporting economic development in poorer countries was an important way to counter Soviet hegemony.  While the stark ideological divide of those days has thankfully dissipated, we all know that trade and growth remain critical factors in countering extremism around the world.

Some honorees have used the platform of the International Leadership Award to rally business and government on important new concerns.  This was the case in 1984, when Edmund Pratt of Pfizer issued a call to action to develop new and better rules to protect intellectual property rights – which led directly to the inclusion of IP protection in the Uruguay Round trade negotiations.  Twenty years later, Jean-René Fourtou of Vivendi Universal picked up the IP banner again, announcing the creation of ICC’s innovative BASCAP (Business Action to Stop Counterfeiting and Piracy) initiative.

Environmental protection and responsible business have been recurring themes among award winners.  In 1992, Dow Chemical’s Frank Popoff noted that “society expects and demands that we be a major part of the environmental solution, and not a contributor to the problem.”  Fifteen years later, as product safety concerns rippled around the world, Fisk Johnson of SC Johnson stated:  “We are the ones who must take the lead.  We can’t leave it to the Chinese. We can’t leave it to the NGOs. We can’t leave it to the federal regulators. The government cannot test everything.  We must be responsible”

Through it all, perhaps the most important theme, and one that bears repeating in today’s world, is can-do spirit.  Current USCIB Chairman Terry McGraw, honored in 2006, noted that international trade “rests on quintessentially American values” of openness, fairness, competition and inclusion .  In 1991, during recessionary times not unlike our own, Kay Whitmore of Eastman Kodak warned against unfounded U.S. pessimism and the siren song of isolationism.  “Pessimism is self perpetuating,” he said, “and failure of nerve can lead to very bad policies.”  Nearly 20 years later, these words still carry remarkable weight.

Persistence, and staying true to one’s principles, was a theme taken up in 2002 by Dick McCormick, the longtime CEO of US WEST who also served as chairman of USCIB and ICC.  He said a benchmark of his career was “the certainty I’ve gained – that the mission and efforts of the United States Council for International Business are the right things, at the right time, for the right reasons – and that we cannot give up, even when the going gets tough.”

More than ever, American business must wrestle with difficult challenges: how to balance corporate profitability with environmental responsibility; how to increase jobs in the U.S. while pursuing new markets overseas; how to support the growth and development of societies around the world, while remaining true to our core values.  As we honor George Buckley and look ahead to the next 30 years, we can have no better guides than the remarkable individuals who have been honored with the International Leadership Award.

Mr. Robinson’s bio and contact information

Other recent postings from Mr. Robinson:

Jobs Take Center Stage (Summer 2010)

Reflections From Copenhagen (Spring 2010)

Now More Than Ever: Competitiveness and Innovation Matter (Winter 2009/2010)

Now More Than Ever: Sustainable Development Matters (Autumn 2009)

To address lingering high unemployment, policy makers need to focus on the private sector.

By Peter M. Robinson

We’re not out of the woods yet, but there are signs of economic recovery in the U.S. and abroad. Policy makers’ attention is rightly focused on shaky public finances and lagging job numbers, the latter being a central theme of a number of international gatherings USCIB has been involved in. Labor policies and employment creation are and remain a central focus of our work. I would like to update you on a variety of initiatives in this area.

In April, the U.S. hosted the first-ever meeting of G20 labor ministers in Washington to assess the state of the recovery and make recommendations on employment policy to G20 leaders. Our affiliates IOE and BIAC jointly organized a business forum, hosted by USCIB. The ministerial declaration highlighted the need to reduce poverty and the size of the informal sector, which can reach over 90 percent of GDP in many developing countries. It also called for improved education, lifelong learning, more cooperative labor markets and regulatory reform.

But glaringly absent was a clear commitment to work with the private sector as the primary engine of job growth. Strange as it sounds, ministers spoke about job growth without saying where the jobs will come from – raising the risk that G20 policies coming out of this process will miss the mark. In our view, governments must establish policies to foster economic growth, which will lead to jobs.

Jobs were also at center stage in Geneva at June’s International Labor Conference, the annual meeting of the ILO, where governments, trade unions and employers from over 180 countries gathered to develop international labor standards. The U.S. employer delegation to this year’s conference was headed by Ed Potter of The Coca-Cola Company, who serves as the employer spokesperson on the ILO Committee on Applications of Standards, and included John Oswalt of Procter & Gamble who participated in the employment discussion, Heidi Kaufman of IBM who represented USCIB in the development of an ILO instrument on HIV/AIDS , and John Kloosterman of Littler who participated in the negotiation on a new ILO convention on domestic workers.

The delegation also included USCIB’s Ronnie Goldberg, who serves on the ILO’s Governing Body and is an IOE regional vice chair. At the conference, she led the employers group in the discussion of the agenda and priorities for ILO work on employment. The conclusions of this discussion will likely impact the future allocation of ILO’s resources, including how it works with employers and the IOE in general, so the importance for U.S. business is high.

The key outcomes of the conference included: the finalization of a new ILO recommendation on HIV/AIDS in the workplace, which will build on the ILO code of practice on HIV/AIDS and was supported by the employer group; the development of an ILO work program on employment that supports enterprise development and job creation; a decision to develop a new ILO convention on domestic workers, which will be finalized next year (the employer group had supported developing a recommendation rather than a convention); efforts to improve the follow-up to the 1998 ILO Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work, which were also supported by the employer group; and a favorable decision by the Committee on Application of Standards on an IOE complaint against the government of Uzbekistan on the use of forced child labor in cotton production.

On May 4, I was in Washington as Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis hosted the first meeting in 10 years of the President’s Committee on the ILO. Members of the committee include the secretaries of labor, state and commerce; the assistants to the president for national security and economic affairs; the president of the AFL-CIO; and the president of USCIB. The committee’s main job is to review ILO conventions for possible ratification. We agreed to prioritize Convention 111 on non-discrimination, and to review two maritime conventions: 185 on seafarers’ identity cards, and the 2006 Maritime Labor Convention, which consolidates a number of earlier treaties.

USCIB played a leading role in two other meetings with the Obama administration on international labor issues. On March 11, we organized a conference with the Departments of State and Labor on Working Conditions in Global Supply Chains. The event was designed to share information between the private and public sectors on what both are doing to improve labor conditions in supply chains. It attracted over 50 company representatives, and included presentations by Michael Kobori of Levis Strauss & Co., Jeff Morgan of Mars, Inc., Monique Oxender of Ford Motor Company and Michael Vaudreuil of Hewlett-Packard.

USCIB also participated in a June 8 inter-agency meeting on child labor. This scourge is mainly found deep at the bottom of the value chain, where few – if any – supply chain programs can reach. Over 60 percent of child labor worldwide is in agriculture, 25 percent in services like domestic work, and only seven percent in factory settings. As one indication of how deep-seated this problem is, over 70 percent of child labor takes place in the form of non-paid family work, where children work with their families instead of going to school. The June 8 session focused on the need to address the root causes of child labor – lack of economic growth and job opportunities for parents, poor access to education for children, and ineffective enforcement of national laws against child labor.

So it has been an exceptionally busy spring on the labor and employment front. We are especially grateful to all our members who have contributed to our work in this area, and of course to our staff experts Ronnie Goldberg and Adam Greene. We can expect to see an ongoing focus on international labor issues, especially if unemployment rates remain relatively high. USCIB will continue to represent your interests in these discussions, and work to promote policies that lead to sustainable growth and job creation.

Mr. Robinson’s bio and contact information

Other recent postings from Mr. Robinson:

Reflections From Copenhagen (Spring 2010)

Now More Than Ever: Competitiveness and Innovation Matter (Winter 2009/2010)

Now More Than Ever: Sustainable Development Matters (Autumn 2009)

Now More Than Ever: Open Markets Matter (Spring 2009)

Spring 2010

With critical business left unfinished, USCIB is urging a return to fundamental priorities.

By Peter M. Robinson

Pride and disappointment, but also renewed resolve, were the emotions I brought back from my time at December’s UN climate summit in Copenhagen.  Pride at the strength and depth of the business delegation we joined.  Disappointment at the lack of a clear road-map for global action to mitigate and adapt to climate change – one that would invigorate private sector innovation and investment in the context of a return to economic growth.  And hope that , by at least providing a foundation in the “Copenhagen Accord,” major economies including China, India and the United States can build more ambitious and concrete actions going forward.

USCIB was present in Copenhagen under the umbrella of the International Chamber of Commerce, which serves as the worldwide focal point  for business representation in the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change.  (As most readers probably know, the formal name for the summit was COP 15, or the 15th conference of the parties to the UN framework convention.)  ICC did a great job keeping the hundreds of business delegates in the loop – and on the same page – as the incredibly complex negotiations unfolded.

We had a truly first-rate delegation that included Ann Condon (General Electric), who chairs our Environment Committee, Brian Flannery (ExxonMobil), co-chair of the USCIB International Energy Group and vice-chair of ICC’s Environment and Energy Commission, Richard Wilder (Microsoft) and Norine Kennedy, USCIB’s vice president for energy and environment (a “survivor” of all the previous COPs).  Each morning, as we gathered in the BINGO (business and industry non-governmental organizations) room for our daily briefing, I was especially proud to see Norine on the dais, supporting ICC’s discussion and outlook for the day’s negotiations and events.

USCIB went into Copenhagen having reminded the Obama administration of the business community’s broad goals: an inclusive global agreement with action by all major emitting nations, support for intellectual property rights to speed the development of new technologies, and ambitious national strategies to address global warming.   In addition, we laid out detailed recommendations on financial mechanisms to meet the climate challenge and mobilize the $10 trillion needed by 2030 to fund necessary improvements to the global energy infrastructure.

At the summit, we joined with ICC in drawing special attention to the urgent need for the rapid development of new technologies to meet the needs of a growing, energy-hungry population worldwide while dealing effectively with global warming, particularly in the Copenhagen Business Day, which brought high level attention to business solutions in these critical areas.  And we co-hosted a special event on the intersection of trade policy and climate change, where speakers highlighted the positive relationship of open trade and investment with technology and financing for climate solutions.

So with all this invested in an ambitious outcome, what is USCIB’s take on the results from Copenhagen?  We are disappointed that the UN process did not deliver a more ambitious agreement.  While the rather minimalist results provide a basis for further work, much remains to be done in 2010 to deliver the clarity, flexibility and enabling frameworks that business has long advocated.  As I write this, most parties still have not laid out their mitigation, adaptation or financial commitments with any meaningful specificity.

With the apparent impasse in the UN process, we can expect a period of uncertainty, in which other influential organizations and deliberations could take on greater importance, such as the World Bank and G8/G20. .  In this regard, it is more important than ever to engage business positively and substantively in these processes,  and work with governments to establish the proper terms and procedures that will give business the predictability it requires to plan, innovate and invest.

These are just some of the issues that were supposed to be resolved in Copenhagen, but weren’t.  Moving forward, discussion of course continues in the United Nations, as we look toward another COP in Cancún at the end of this year.  But we also will watch  processes like the Major Economies Forum which might be able to move ahead with a smaller group of like-minded countries.

Whatever the forum, you can expect USCIB to be there, pressing governments to make the hard choices required for meaningful action on climate and energy.

Mr. Robinson’s bio and contact information

Other recent postings from Mr. Robinson:

Now More Than Ever: Competitiveness and Innovation Matter (Winter 2009/2010)

Now More Than Ever: Sustainable Development Matters (Autumn 2009)

Now More Than Ever: Open Markets Matter (Spring 2009)

Now More Than Ever: In the current crisis, USCIB’s core values matter even more (Winter 2008/2009)

To address lingering high unemployment, policy makers need to focus on the private sector.

By Peter M. Robinson

We’re not out of the woods yet, but there are signs of economic recovery in the U.S. and abroad. Policy makers’ attention is rightly focused on shaky public finances and lagging job numbers, the latter being a central theme of a number of international gatherings USCIB has been involved in. Labor policies and employment creation are and remain a central focus of our work. I would like to update you on a variety of initiatives in this area.

In April, the U.S. hosted the first-ever meeting of G20 labor ministers in Washington to assess the state of the recovery and make recommendations on employment policy to G20 leaders. Our affiliates IOE and BIAC jointly organized a business forum, hosted by USCIB. The ministerial declaration highlighted the need to reduce poverty and the size of the informal sector, which can reach over 90 percent of GDP in many developing countries. It also called for improved education, lifelong learning, more cooperative labor markets and regulatory reform.

But glaringly absent was a clear commitment to work with the private sector as the primary engine of job growth. Strange as it sounds, ministers spoke about job growth without saying where the jobs will come from – raising the risk that G20 policies coming out of this process will miss the mark. In our view, governments must establish policies to foster economic growth, which will lead to jobs.

Jobs were also at center stage in Geneva at June’s International Labor Conference, the annual meeting of the ILO, where governments, trade unions and employers from over 180 countries gathered to develop international labor standards. The U.S. employer delegation to this year’s conference was headed by Ed Potter of The Coca-Cola Company, who serves as the employer spokesperson on the ILO Committee on Applications of Standards, and included John Oswalt of Procter & Gamble who participated in the employment discussion, Heidi Kaufman of IBM who represented USCIB in the development of an ILO instrument on HIV/AIDS , and John Kloosterman of Littler who participated in the negotiation on a new ILO convention on domestic workers.

The delegation also included USCIB’s Ronnie Goldberg, who serves on the ILO’s Governing Body and is an IOE regional vice chair. At the conference, she led the employers group in the discussion of the agenda and priorities for ILO work on employment. The conclusions of this discussion will likely impact the future allocation of ILO’s resources, including how it works with employers and the IOE in general, so the importance for U.S. business is high.

The key outcomes of the conference included: the finalization of a new ILO recommendation on HIV/AIDS in the workplace, which will build on the ILO code of practice on HIV/AIDS and was supported by the employer group; the development of an ILO work program on employment that supports enterprise development and job creation; a decision to develop a new ILO convention on domestic workers, which will be finalized next year (the employer group had supported developing a recommendation rather than a convention); efforts to improve the follow-up to the 1998 ILO Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work, which were also supported by the employer group; and a favorable decision by the Committee on Application of Standards on an IOE complaint against the government of Uzbekistan on the use of forced child labor in cotton production.

On May 4, I was in Washington as Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis hosted the first meeting in 10 years of the President’s Committee on the ILO. Members of the committee include the secretaries of labor, state and commerce; the assistants to the president for national security and economic affairs; the president of the AFL-CIO; and the president of USCIB. The committee’s main job is to review ILO conventions for possible ratification. We agreed to prioritize Convention 111 on non-discrimination, and to review two maritime conventions: 185 on seafarers’ identity cards, and the 2006 Maritime Labor Convention, which consolidates a number of earlier treaties.

USCIB played a leading role in two other meetings with the Obama administration on international labor issues. On March 11, we organized a conference with the Departments of State and Labor on Working Conditions in Global Supply Chains. The event was designed to share information between the private and public sectors on what both are doing to improve labor conditions in supply chains. It attracted over 50 company representatives, and included presentations by Michael Kobori of Levis Strauss & Co., Jeff Morgan of Mars, Inc., Monique Oxender of Ford Motor Company and Michael Vaudreuil of Hewlett-Packard.

USCIB also participated in a June 8 inter-agency meeting on child labor. This scourge is mainly found deep at the bottom of the value chain, where few – if any – supply chain programs can reach. Over 60 percent of child labor worldwide is in agriculture, 25 percent in services like domestic work, and only seven percent in factory settings. As one indication of how deep-seated this problem is, over 70 percent of child labor takes place in the form of non-paid family work, where children work with their families instead of going to school. The June 8 session focused on the need to address the root causes of child labor – lack of economic growth and job opportunities for parents, poor access to education for children, and ineffective enforcement of national laws against child labor.

So it has been an exceptionally busy spring on the labor and employment front. We are especially grateful to all our members who have contributed to our work in this area, and of course to our staff experts Ronnie Goldberg and Adam Greene. We can expect to see an ongoing focus on international labor issues, especially if unemployment rates remain relatively high. USCIB will continue to represent your interests in these discussions, and work to promote policies that lead to sustainable growth and job creation.

Mr. Robinson’s bio and contact information

Other recent postings from Mr. Robinson:

Reflections From Copenhagen (Spring 2010)

Now More Than Ever: Competitiveness and Innovation Matter (Winter 2009/2010)

Now More Than Ever: Sustainable Development Matters (Autumn 2009)

Now More Than Ever: Open Markets Matter (Spring 2009)