Business In Society Archives

Coalition for Green Trade Endorses WTO’s Environmental Goods Agreement

Published on July 9, 2014

4779_image002USCIB joined with other U.S. business groups to form the Coalition for Green Trade on Tuesday to support new negotiations by World Trade Organization (WTO) members that would remove trade barriers on environmental technologies.

The coalition has called on members of the WTO to negotiate an ambitious Environmental Goods Agreement (EGA), which would eliminate trade barriers on a broad range of environmental goods, such as solar panels and recycled materials.

In addition, USCIB joined with a broad range of business associations and companies from around the world in calling for an EGA. An open letter to WTO negotiators signed by USCIB stated: “We are committed to working with governments around the world to ensure a commercially meaningful Environmental Goods Agreement that promotes economic growth, improves environmental outcomes and advances innovation.”

Global trade in environmental goods is estimated to be $1 trillion annually, and trade in environmental products more than doubled from 2001 to 2007. An EGA would further increase global trade in environmental goods and lower the cost of addressing climate challenges by removing steep tariffs, the groups said.

“EGA is important in its own right, and can also act as a stepping stone to lower tariffs in other sectors and value chains associated with environmental technologies,” said Eva Hampl, USCIB’s director of investment, trade and financial services.  “A high-quality agreement would advance global innovation and be flexible to permit new entrants and commitments to keep pace with new technologies.”

The Coalition for Green Trade is co-chaired by USCIB, the National Association of Manufacturers  and the National Foreign Trade Council, and its  steering committee includes the Business Council for Sustainable Energy, Coalition of Service Industries, Emergency Committee for American Trade, Information Technology Industry Council, Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries, National Electrical Manufacturers Association, Semiconductor Industry Association, Solar Energy Industries Association  and U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

The first round of EGA talks are scheduled to begin this week in Geneva. Representatives from NAM, NFTC and USCIB are leading a U.S. business delegation to participate in events and meetings on the sidelines of the official negotiations.

Staff contacts: Norine Kennedy and Eva Hampl

More on USCIB’s Trade and Investment Committee

More on USCIB’s Environment Committee

BIAC Holds Health Care Policy Task Force Meeting

Published on July 1, 2014

Members of the Business and Industry Advisory Council (BIAC) to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) met in Paris to prepare for the Consultation with the OECD Health Committee on June 23. USCIB is BIAC’s American affiliate.

BIAC delegates discussed ways to promote a proactive agenda in health policy with the OECD, and members identified policy priorities in the field of health for the upcoming 2015-16 biennium.

At the bi-annual OECD Consultation with BIAC and the Trade Union Advisory Committee on June 23, Nicole Denjoy, the chair of the BIAC Health Care Policy Task Force, called for a more integrated way of engaging with the OECD Health Committee and for the participation of BIAC delegates to the plenary sessions of the OECD Health Committee.

Staff contact: Helen Medina

More on USCIB’s Health Care Committee

Employers Reaffirm Commitment to UN Principles on Business and Human Rights

Published on June 30, 2014
(UN Photo/Pierre Albouy)
(UN Photo/Pierre Albouy)

The global business community voiced concern over last week’s vote by members of the United Nations Human Rights Council in favor of a proposal, put forward by Ecuador and South Africa, to negotiate a binding treaty on business and human rights.

Industry representatives said the vote could undermine ongoing efforts to implement the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, the so-called “Ruggie Principles” which have garnered broad support among states, businesses and civil society.

That consensus was reaffirmed on Friday by the Council’s unanimous adoption of a second resolution put forward by a “core group,” consisting of Argentina, Ghana, Norway and Russia, which renewed the mandate of the UN Working Group on Business and Human Rights to continue facilitating the implementation of the UN Guiding Principles by governments and corporations.

According to USCIB’s Vice President for Labor, Corporate Responsibility and Governance Ariel Meyerstein, when compared to the unanimous support for the core group’s resolution, the narrow margin of support garnered by Ecuador and South Africa’s proposal – 20 countries supporting, 14 against and 13 abstaining – clearly reflects the lack of consensus behind an intergovernmental treaty-making process.

“While there is still a remarkable degree of agreement over the ”protect, respect and remedy” framework of the Guiding Principles and the multi-stakeholder approach of the UN Working Group on Business and Human Rights, governments are clearly split over a treaty approach.” Meyerstein said, noting that the widespread uptake of the Guiding Principles after only three years far outpaced traditional treaty-making efforts and confirmed that it was a “trusted approach, which, if given sufficient time and support from national governments as well as the business sector, will achieve considerable results on the ground.”

Meyerstein spoke from Paris, where he attended the OECD’s 2nd Annual Global Forum on Responsible Business Conduct, which gathered more than 700 participants from the international community to address the application of the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises in implementing responsible business practices globally.

The International Organization of Employers (IOE), part of USCIB’s global network and the voice of business in the International Labor Organization and other UN bodies, also voiced its support for the Guiding Principles in the aftermath of the vote on the Ecuador-South Africa proposal, noting that:

“Notwithstanding the adoption of the Ecuador resolution yesterday, [the Guiding Principles] remain the right approach to strengthen the implementation of human rights on the ground. The IOE is fully committed to continue to collaborate closely with the UN Working Group, States and all other stakeholders to reach this aim.”

Prior to the vote, the IOE questioned the utility of devoting resources to drafting yet another treaty, particularly one, as currently proposed by Ecuador and South Africa, that targets only multinational firms but not purely domestic enterprises, and that might not be enforced in many countries where rights abuses are rampant.

“As Prof. Ruggie observed on multiple occasions in response to the Ecuador proposal, there is unfortunately no reason to believe the proposed binding instrument would enjoy a different fate in any of the jurisdictions where there are already deficits in human rights treaty ratification and enforcement and the rule of law,” Meyerstein said.

Staff contact: Ariel Meyerstein

More on USCIB’s Labor and Employment Committee

More on USCIB’s Corporate Responsibility Committee

USCIB Promotes Business Innovation at Historic UN Environment Assembly

Published on June 30, 2014

4772_image002

Norine Kennedy (USCIB) speaks at the UN Environment Assembly’s side event on the roles of UNEP, the sustainable development goals and business.
Norine Kennedy (USCIB) speaks at the UN Environment Assembly’s side event on the roles of UNEP, the sustainable development goals and business.

USCIB and its business network took part in the first-ever UN Environment Assembly (UNEA) last week in Nairobi.

UNEA is the governing body of the UN Environment Program, meeting for the first time since it was created by the UN General Assembly.   This principal UN environmental body has a membership of all 193 UN member states, making it the only “universal” body of the UN aside from the General Assembly. Over 1,200 participants, 170 national delegations, and 80 ministers were on hand for the five-day event from June 23 to 27 at UNEP’s HQ in Nairobi, Kenya.

USCIB representatives in Nairobi included Norine Kennedy, USCIB’s vice president for strategic international engagement, environment and energy, who serves as a co-chair of the UNEP coordinating group for non-governmental interests.  The UN Environment Assembly’s agenda and outcomes included decisions on illegal trade in timber and wildlife, air quality and chemicals. During the five day meeting, UNEA also convened symposia on “Financing the Green Economy” and “The Environmental Rule of Law.”

The Green Economies Dialogue (GED) held a side event on June 26 in Nairobi on “The Role of the UN Environment Program (UNEP), the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and Business.”  Held during the first ever U.N. Environment Assembly, this business event was co-hosted with the International Organization of Employers (IOE) and the International Council of Chemicals Associations.

The side event discussed new green growth challenges and priorities linked to the SDGs relevant to UNEP’s environmental mandate, which include economic growth, jobs, sustainable consumption and production, resource efficiency.  Business speakers highlighted the necessary enabling frameworks in trade, investment and innovation that must be reflected in the SDGs to support private sector contributions to economic and environmental progress.

The GED project is now focused on the “green economy” and “green growth” aspects of the U.N.’s Post 2015 Development Agenda and related UNEP and OECD efforts.  GED is a project under the auspices of the U.S. Council Foundation that was launched to inform the Rio+20 policy debate.   GED developed information, tools and a platform for business to engage with national governments, thought leaders, academics and others on the way to Rio+20. These included Dialogue events in Washington, Paris, Beijing, Tokyo and Brasilia, and a set of peer-reviewed papers published in Energy Economics that provided academic Green Perspectives on many business-relevant issues.

Speakers at the GED event included:

Simon Darlington, President, East Africa,  Alstom

Charles Arden Clarke, U.N. Environment Program 10 Year Framework of Programs on Sustainable Consumption and Production

Helen Marquard, executive director, the SEED Initiative

Weru Macharia, Kenyan representative, IOE

Brian P. Flannery, Chair, International Business Green Economies Dialogue

 

Staff Contact: Norine Kennedy

More on USCIB’s Environment Committee

Honoring Ed Potter at the IOE Leaders Summit

Published on June 20, 2014
Ed Potter (Coca-Cola) addressed the ILO Conference in Geneva on June 10.
Ed Potter (Coca-Cola) addressed the ILO Conference in Geneva on June 10.

The 103rd International Labor Conference wrapped up last week in Geneva, concluding the International Labor Organization’s (ILO) high-level deliberations that brought together government delegates from the organization’s 185 member states, representatives from workers’ organizations and employers’ organizations to discuss a wide range of employment and workforce development issues.

During the International Organization of Employers (IOE) Leaders’ Summit, the Employers’ Group paid tribute to Ed Potter, the employers’ spokesperson, thanking him for his many years of expertise and service to the employer cause at the International Labor Conference.

Potter serves chairs USCIB’s Labor and Employment Committee and is the director of global workplace rights at The Coca-Cola Company. After three decades of championing business at the ILO Conference, Potter will retire next year. His work in this year’s discussion on forced labor was described as “masterful.”

At the proposal of Peter Woolford of the Canadian Employers’ Council, Potter received a standing ovation from the Employers’ Group at the IOE Leaders’ Summit for his many years of dedication, expertise and service. Looking back at 1980, when Potter’s ILO Conference career kicked off, Woolford reminisced that the Berlin Wall still stood, Lech Walesa was making waves in Poland, two guys were working in a garage in California on something that would become a fruit-branded personal computer, and Swedish pop band Abba was at the top of the charts; appropriately with “Super Trouper.”

USCIB held a dinner on June 11 in Geneva at the Cercle de la Terasse, hosted by USCIB President and CEO Peter Robinson, in honor of both Potter and USCIB Senior Counsel Ronnie Goldberg, who had been reelected as U.S. member of the ILO Governing Body. Robinson and USCIB Vice President for Labor Affairs Ariel Meyerstein toasted Potter and Goldberg “for their decades of service representing business and employers, working in tripartite partnership to promote economic growth, job creation and social development.”

Guests included ILO Director General Guy Ryder, IOE Secretary General Brent Wilton, IOE Chairman Daniel Funes de Rioja, and other colleagues from the government, business, and trade union communities.

Read the IOE’s Report on the 103rd International Labor Conference.

Staff contacts: Ronnie Goldberg and Ariel Meyerstein

More on USCIB’s Labor & Employment Committee

Jørgen Rønnest Elected Employers Vice Chairperson of the ILO Governing Body

Published on June 17, 2014

The International Organization of Employers announced on Monday that Vice President of the ILO Jørgen Rønnest of Denmark was elected employers’ vice chairperson of the ILO Governing Body. USCIB is the American Affiliate of the International Organization of Employers.

Rønnest worked for over a decade in the Danish Ministry of Finance as an economist and expert on the European Union. His international career includes three years as financial attaché to the Danish Embassy in Washington, D.C.

Following six years as chief economist at Danske Bank, Rønnest served as director for international affairs at the Confederation of Danish Employers. He has sat at the IOE Management Board as the voice of Nordic Employers for four years.

“I am honored and delighted to be assuming the important role of leading the representation of business and employers in the ILO,” Rønnest said at his election on June 13. “The Employers’ Group has contributed significantly in recent years to reforming the organization to meet the expectations of the constituents and the challenges of the future. I look forward to continuing this work in the run up to the ILO’s centenary and would like to thank the group for the confidence they have placed in me.”

IOE Secretary General Brent Wilton added: “The global employer community is privileged to have Jørgen, with his breadth of knowledge and experience, as their principal interlocutor in the ILO he enjoys their unanimous support.”

USCIB’s Ronnie Goldberg was recently re-elected to the ILO’s Governing Body and serves as an IOE regional vice president.

Staff contact: Ronnie Goldberg

More on USCIB’s Labor & Employment Committee

Calls for Education Reform at IOE Leaders Summit

Published on June 11, 2014
Peter Robinson (USCIB)
Peter Robinson (USCIB)

The International Organization of Employers (IOE) Leaders’ Summit wrapped up on Tuesday in Geneva, featuring business organization leaders from around the world who addressed key barriers to business sustainability. The summit took place during the International Labor Organization (ILO) Conference, which focused on closing the workforce skills gap and reforming the labor market. USCIB is the U.S. affiliate of the IOE.

Three panel discussions were chaired by new IOE President Daniel Funes de Rioja and moderated by Blaise Matthey, secretary general of the Business Federation of Western Switzerland.

“Our educational system needs to catch up with the advances we’ve made in technology”

USCIB President and CEO Peter Robinson delivered remarks during the first panel, titled “Predicting the Unpredictable: Skills for the 21st Century.”

Robinson outlined some of the challenges employers and workers face as a result of rapidly developing technologies – such as the possibility of machines displacing human workers – and made the case for education reforms that will equip the workforce with the skills necessary to thrive in the digital economy.

In order to address the challenges posed by new technologies, Robinson argued that the education system must instill future employees with the character traits necessary to succeed in the new economy: curiosity, enthusiasm, a strategic mindset and the ability to construct systems that leverage vast computational power. Old teaching methods, such as rote memorization and test-taking, will not be as valuable.

Robinson also called for an improved connection between school-based learning and work-based training, with more sensible and coherent apprenticeship and internship programs, and made the case for lifelong learning rather than the front-end-loading of education. Companies must also develop training programs that prepare workers for both current and future jobs.

“We also need governments and the private sector to work together to provide the kind of robust infrastructure needed to access the transformational power of the Internet and other technologies.” Robinson said, and cited the Colombian government’s recent efforts to upgrade citizens’ access to Internet through a broadband rollout program as a good model.

“We need to prepare ourselves as best we can, working together to help determine what people need to learn for the 21st-century workplace. And we need to get started right now,” Robinson concluded.

Read Robinson’s full remarks.

Staff contacts: Ronnie Goldberg
and Ariel Meyerstein

More on USCIB’s Labor & Employment Committee

USCIB Supports Ratification of Disability Treaty

Published on June 10, 2014

4752_image001New York, N.Y., June 10, 2014 – The United States Council for International Business (USCIB), which represents America’s top global companies, has urged Congress to ratify the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), an international disability treaty that was inspired by U.S. leadership in recognizing the rights of people with disabilities.

The CRDP was modeled after the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), and provides a vital framework for creating global policies that embrace the rights of people with disabilities. Ratification of the CPRD allows the U.S. to maintain its leadership role and eliminate disability discrimination around the world.

USCIB signed on with over 800 disability, business and faith organizations that voiced support for the treaty. In a letter addressed to Senate leaders, USCIB President and CEO Peter M. Robinson urged Congress to move expeditiously to ratify the treaty, and underscored how the CRPD strengthens American leadership and benefits business.

“U.S. business has long recognized that policies promoting diversity and non-discrimination in the workplace are important for protecting human rights as well as for purely business reasons,” said Robinson. “Workplace diversity conveys important economic advantages on both companies and the societies in which they do business, including broader talent pools, improved productivity, increased job creation and opening new markets.”

USCIB is a member of the ILO Global Business and Disability Network, a voluntary group of multinational companies, employers’ organizations, business networks and disabled persons’ organizations who share the conviction that people with disabilities have talents and skills that can enhance virtually any workplace. USCIB Senior Counsel Ronnie Goldberg serves on the network’s steering committee.

About USCIB:

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

Contact:

Jonathan Huneke, VP communications, USCIB

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

 

More on USCIB’s Labor & Employment Committee

USCIB Represents American Employers at ILO Conference

Published on June 9, 2014

long

peopleUSCIB represented American employers at the 103rd Session of the International Labor Conference in Geneva from May 28 to June 12. The International Labor Conference is the highest decision-making body of the International Labor Organization (ILO), which brings together government delegates from the organization’s 185 member states, representatives from workers’ organizations and employers’ organizations such as the International Organization of Employers (IOE). USCIB is the American affiliate of the IOE.

USCIB’s Senior Council Ronnie Goldberg and Vice President of Labor Affairs, Corporate Responsibility and Governance Ariel Meyerstein were among those representing U.S. employers at the ILO Conference.

“Historic Opportunity for the Global Business Community to Put Its Stamp on Human Rights”

On June 9, the ILO Forced Labor Committee successfully completed a new recommendation and protocol, which will supplement the 1930 Forced Labor Convention. The new protocol will address gaps on human trafficking.

Speaking on Wednesday during the Forced Labor Committee discussions, Employer Spokesperson Ed Potter (Coca-Cola) told attendees that the committee’s work is a “historic opportunity for the business community to put its stamp on human rights.”

Read Potter’s statement.

Goldberg Re-elected to ILO GB with Highest Number of Votes Among Standing Candidates

At the ILO Conference, USCIB’s Goldberg represented the IOE Management Board and stood for re-election to the Governing Body of the ILO and reappointment as an IOE regional vice president. She also participated in the International Labor Conference Committee on Employment, which focused on setting ILO employment priorities. Goldberg was re-elected to the governing body with the highest number of votes among all candidates standing. A full list of recently elected ILO Governing Body members can be found on the IOE website. They will serve from 2014 to 2017.

ILO Workers’ Representatives Block Conclusions in the Committee on Application of Standards

In a disappointing move over the weekend, the Workers’ Group announced it would block draft conclusions in the Committee on the Application of Standards. It blocked proceedings because the Workers’ Group refused to accept any language that indicates disagreement over including the right to strike in this convention.

The IOE website reports: “Employers find it very difficult to understand why the Workers refuse to have acknowledged in the conclusions perfectly legitimate differing points of view – a normal practice in any tripartite discussion.”

ILO Director General Guy Ryder Gives “Honest Appraisal” of Employers’ Group Reform

At a June 4 meeting of the ILO Employers’ Group, Guy Ryder, the director general of the ILO, announced he would deliver an “honest appraisal” of the ILO reform to the group. He noted positive developments, with the ILO “beginning to work in new, different and better ways.” He also acknowledged Employers’ Group’s role in bringing beneficial reform to the ILO Governing Body.

– Read more on the IOE website

USCIB Weighs In on Transition to Formal Economy

During the ILO Conference, USCIB’s Meyerstein participated in the Committee on the Transition from the Informal to the Formal Economy. The committee serves as a two-year standard setting process that will lead to a recommendation from the ILO to member states on how to manage this transition, which affects a huge proportion of the global economy in both developed and developing countries.

In consultation with a global group of national employer representatives, USCIB is advocating for a general framework that recognizes the diversity of national experiences and recommends gradual and progressive transition strategies that are built upon establishing legal relationships between employers, employees and the state.  Establishing these legal relationships is the necessary precursor to expanding national capacity to implement and enforce ILO labor standards and social protections.

Meyerstein noted that transition strategies should remove barriers to entry into the formal economy presented by over-burdensome regulatory frameworks, present appropriate support and incentives to make transition easy for enterprises and continue to provide them an enabling environment for sustainable growth.

Staff contacts: Ronnie Goldberg and Ariel Meyerstein

More on USCIB’s Labor & Employment Committee

USCIBs Kennedy in Germany for UN Climate Talks

Published on June 6, 2014

4750_image001Ahead of a planned global climate agreement in Paris next year, government negotiators have assembled in Bonn, Germany from June 4 to 14 for the next round of UN climate talks. These June sessions of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) focused on “raising ambition in areas of urbanization and land use.”

Negotiators have been tasked with designing the 2015 agreement and finding ways to raise ambition to address climate change before 2020.

USCIB’s Norine Kennedy, vice president for strategic international engagement, energy and environment attended the Bonn climate talks and spoke on behalf of business and industry groups.

“We want to work with you so we can achieve a deal that involves all countries, motivates all actors, and delivers economic and environmental benefits to all,” Kennedy told government officials at the meeting.

She stressed that governments will benefit from listening to what business considers priority elements that should be reflected in the 2015 climate agreement. Kennedy noted that the agreement should work with markets on issues such as carbon pricing, and she urged governments to build flexibility into the treaty so that states can adjust to future scientific, technological and economic innovations. Due to limited resources, Kennedy said the final agreement should promote cost-effective, market-based actions.

“The UNFCCC’s attention to non-state actors, such as business, has opened a promising area of cooperation and further work to supplement and amplify government efforts,” Kennedy noted.

Progress Report

Kennedy reports that the talks on a new UN post-2020 agreement have reached the halfway point, after meetings on June 8 concluded with an impasse.  While governments have committed to agree to “elements of a text” at the next Conference of Parties in December in Lima, they cannot reach any consensus on their starting point text for discussion.  The new agreement will include sections on mitigation (greenhouse gas reduction commitments), adaptation to climate change impacts, technology and finance for developing countries, transparency and reporting, and “nationally determined contributions (NDCs).”

NDCs are a U.S. proposal backed by most countries to allow each country, whether developed or developing, to set out its pledges for action.  This is a departure from the previous Kyoto Protocol approach, which was built on “top-down” targets.  Business representatives in Bonn are seeking to better understand where the private sector would weigh in during the national and international stages of this pledge and review oriented approach.

The first half of the week was dedicated to ministerial discussions and a full-court charm offensive by the incoming president of the UNFCCC negotiations, the Peruvian Environment Minister, Manuel Pulgar Vidal.   Preparations for the Lima COP have gotten off to a slow start, with construction of the conference venue delayed.  This raises the possibility that the number of government and non-governmental representatives allowed to attend will be quite limited.  Lima is expected to indicate whether governments can agree on the form of targets and funding commitments and thereby to be on track to reach the final agreement in Paris in 2015.

USCIB has met with members of the Inter-Governmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and with the “Umbrella Group” (a coalition of countries including the U.S., Canada, Norway, Israel, New Zealand, Australia, Japan, Russia) to discuss information needs from business for the NDCs, the future of carbon markets and the Clean Development Mechanism, and the role of business in the new climate treaty to be finalized in Paris. USCIB is working with the Major Economies Business Forum (BizMEF) and the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) which serves as the official business focal point for the UNFCCC.

“So at the half-way point, the process is facing some major hurdles,” said Kennedy. “However, delegations are feeling the pressure of expectations on them to reach an outcome in Paris that will pass muster with domestic stakeholders, so failure is not an option.”

Read Kennedy’s full remarks.

Follow Kennedy on Twitter @USCIBKennedy

Staff contact: Norine Kennedy

 

More on USCIB’s Environment Committee