ICC Calls for Safeguards to Prevent Misplaced Digital Advertisements

Published on March 20, 2014

In a statement issued earlier this month, the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) has called for companies across the digital advertising ecosystem to work together to develop safeguards against advertisement placements that support illegal activity or harm brand reputation.

ICC is calling for industry cooperation on the development of a self-regulatory mechanism that reduces the likelihood of advertisements being placed on sites dedicated to either engaging in or facilitating illegal activity or around content that an advertiser deems to be harmful.

“There is consensus among everyone in the ecosystem that advertising should not support illegal activity,” said Brent Sanders, chair of the ICC Commission on Marketing and Advertising and associate general counsel for Microsoft Corporation. “This statement acknowledges the importance of a collective solution and encourages cooperation to set up effective, feasible self-regulatory solutions.” Sanders also chairs USCIB’s Marketing and Advertising Committee.

“In addition to problems of undermining brand reputation and funding illegal sites, advert misplacements can also lead consumers to mistakenly believe that a site is legitimate,” said David Fares, chair of the working group that developed the statement and senior vice president, government relations, 21st Century Fox. “ICC members want to help raise awareness of this issue and encourage development of effective mechanisms to address it. Some markets have started already and we encourage further developments of this kind.”

ICC recommends that an appropriate self-regulatory system to address misplaced advertising should include:

using commercially reasonable efforts and measures to reduce the risk of advertisements being placed on sites dedicated to either engaging in or facilitating illegal activity, or on sites that the brand identifies as undesirable for its products/services; and
developing commercially reasonable policies and processes for removing or excluding sites dedicated to either engaging in or facilitating illegal activity from their marketing campaigns and/or services, and the development of an industry-wide standard for expeditiously terminating such non-compliant advertisement placements.

ICC has been a major rules-setter in international advertising self-regulation since 1937, when the ICC Commission on Marketing and Advertising issued the first code on advertising. Today, ICC principles serve as the gold standard for most national and industry self-regulation.

For more information download the ICC policy statement on safeguarding against misplacement of digital advertising.

Staff contact: Jonathan Huneke

More on USCIB’s Marketing and Advertising Committee

Gender Equality: A To-Do List for Employers and Governments

Published on March 20, 2014

USCIB’s Ronnie Goldberg presented the views of global employers on gender equality at the UN Commission on the Status of Women.

USCIB Senior Advisor Ronnie Goldberg, who serves as the North American regional vice president of the International Organization of Employers (IOE), took part in a March 12 panel discussion of equal pay at the 58th Session of the UN Commission on the Status of Women in New York.

The panel, organized by the International Labor Organization and the government of Finland, facilitated the sharing of experiences and challenges, across countries and regions, of promoting equal pay for women and men, and informed the discussions during the session of the Commission on the Status of Women.

Articulating the global voice of employers, Goldberg stated: “Employers support, not just the human rights case, but the compelling business and economic case for unleashing women’s skills and talents and empowering them to enjoy equal access to job opportunities and career development.”

In her remarks, Goldberg presented a menu of recommendations to enhance efforts by companies and governments to support and promote women’s advancement and gender equality in the workplace.

The toolkit of best practices presented for companies included measures and policies around the following themes:

Top management leadership and commitment to gender equality
Making gender core to the business strategy, which requires measurement and accountability
Providing an enabling framework through human resource and operational policies, including opportunities for flexible schedules and part-time work.
Providing a robust and relevant support system for women executives through education and training
Changing mind-sets and corporate culture
Addressing the broader social context.

At the same time, Goldberg underlined that businesses looked to governments to adopt the following general approaches:

Recognize gender equality as a key lever in economic development and competitiveness
Champion for women’s economic empowerment with government officials at the highest level
Act as positive role models, promoting ambitious gender diversity targets for their own administrations as well as the state enterprises under their control
Engage in dialogue with business.

Goldberg called for governments and the business community to work together to come up with data- and fact-based strategies with realistic goals, and urged the OECD, ILO, other international organizations and the international financial institutions to continue to work together to come up with data- and fact-based strategies with realistic goals. She further urged these bodies to continue to work collaboratively to raise awareness of the economic dividend of gender equality.

Staff contact: Ronnie Goldberg

More on USCIB’s Labor and Employment Committee

EU Proposes SelfCertification on Conflict Minerals

Published on March 18, 2014

Earlier this month, in a welcome contrast to a needlessly stringent U.S. approach to conflict minerals from Central Africa, the European Commission put forward a draft regulation to set up a system of supply chain due diligence self-certification of importers of minerals to the EU. The regulation would encourage industry self-certification of responsible imports of tin, tantalum, tungsten and gold from conflict-affected and high-risk areas.

The proposal is based on the OECD’s Due Diligence Guidance for Responsible Supply Chains of Minerals from Conflict-Affected and High-Risk Areas, the credible international corporate due diligence benchmark. The EU self-certification system calls for the adherence to the five steps of the OECD due diligence guidance through monitoring and overseeing of purchases.

USCIB has played a key role coordinating business contributions to the OECD due diligence guidance, and we have advocated for the EU regulation on conflict minerals, working actively with BIAC, the Business and Industry Advisory Committee to the OECD to encourage responsible sourcing and to offset the disincentives created by Section 1502 of the U.S. Dodd-Frank law, which many observers believe encourages a de facto embargo of minerals exports from the Democratic Republic of Congo and other affected regions.

The OECD due diligence guidance was developed in line with the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, both of which aim to advance supply chain due diligence practices and avoid the inadvertent consequences of Dodd-Frank.

Staff contact: Ronnie Goldberg

More on USCIB’s Corporate Responsibility Committee

Global Business and Disability Network

Published on March 14, 2014

4690_image001 According to the International Labor Organization (ILO), more than a billion people worldwide experience some form of disability. Many companies are learning the strategic advantage of a diverse workforce that is inclusive of disabled people.

The ILO Global Business and Disability Network is 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.

Many countries have laws and policies related to non-discrimination and employment of disabled persons. ILO standards, disability experience and global reach can assist companies as they seek to initiate or improve practices related to disability in the workplace.

The network works with the ILO and through it, other UN agencies, governmental, non-governmental, disabled peoples, educational, and private voluntary organizations and the business community to share knowledge and information and engage in activities of mutual benefit related to disability and business.

USCIB is a member of the network, and USCIB Senior Counsel Ronnie Goldberg serves on its steering committee.

Staff contact: Ronnie Goldberg

More on USCIB’s Labor and Employment Committee

New ICC Framework Clarified Do’s and Dont’s for Responsible Alcohol Marketing

Published on March 13, 2014

A new global resource has been published by the ICC Commission on Marketing and Advertising to help strengthen self-regulation for marketing alcohol. By clarifying how existing global principles should be applied in practice, the ICC Framework for Responsible Marketing Communications of Alcohol offers companies and advertising self-regulatory bodies a guide for bolstering responsible practice across markets. It will also serve as the basis for developing self-regulatory rules for marketing alcohol where these do not exist.

The ICC framework was developed by the body of global experts responsible for developing and updating the Consolidated ICC Code of Advertising and Marketing Communications Practice, which serves as the gold standard for most national and industry-wide self-regulation.

“The framework takes principles, such as social responsibility, and spells out what it means when developing or assessing an alcohol marketing communication,” said Oliver Gray, executive director of the European Advertising Standards Alliance and co-chair of ICC’s Code Revision Task Force, which drafted the framework.

“So whether you are marketing beer in Japan, wine in Argentina or spirits in the U.S., promoting your product as a means for social success, performance in sport or attractiveness to the opposite sex is not an acceptable practice,” he said. “And for self-regulatory organizations reviewing advertisements to enforce those principles, this extra clarity will be invaluable.”

According to Jonathan Huneke, USCIB’s vice president for communications and public affairs, who staffs USCIB’s Marketing and Advertising Committee, the drafters worked in close consultation with the alcohol industry, including in the United States. “We wanted to make sure that the framework could help companies meet their commitments to strengthening self-regulation, but without disrupting existing codes.”

“We have been strongly supportive of this effort,” said Brett Bivans, senior vice president of the International Center for Alcohol Policies. “This is a significant step in strengthening and clarifying high standards of responsible marketing, and we will work closely with ICC and other partners as the framework is implemented.”

ICC has served as the authoritative rule-setter for international advertising since the 1930s, when the first ICC code on advertising practice was issued. Since then, it has updated and expanded the ICC self-regulatory framework where needed to assist companies in marketing their products responsibly and to help self-regulators apply the rules consistently.

Staff contacts: Jonathan Huneke

More on USCIB’s Marketing and Advertising Committee

Making the Case for Business Engagement in the UN Sustainable Development Goals

Published on March 4, 2014

Following up on its January 31 paper on essential elements of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, USCIB is actively working to secure meaningful business input in the development of the SDGs and the UN’s Post-2015 Development Agenda. The SDGs are viewed as the UN’s successor to the Millennium Development Goals agreed in 2000.

The January USCIB paper identified four overarching elements as essential to the business contribution in broad range of proposed SDG themes: good governance, economic growth and empowerment, innovation, and infrastructure. It also called for substantive business engagement to participate in and inform the UN SDG deliberations.

“The U.S. business community has a strong stake in meaningful and practical SDGs,” said USCIB Vice President Norine Kennedy, who spearheads USCIB’s efforts to engage with international institutions as well as our environment and sustainability work. “National implementation and the right conditions in-country are the foundations on which a UN new paradigm for international development should be based. The SDGs will be successfully put into practice in those countries that have institutions and practices in place, and involve their private sector in meaningful ways.”

“Business has a critical role”

Kennedy joined USCIB members Ann Condon (General Electric), who chairs USCIB’s Environment Committee Chair, and Tam Nguyen (Bechtel), co-chair of USCIB’s SDG Working Group, as a featured speaker at a February Chevron Forum at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, D.C.

Entitled Business in the Post-2015 Development Agenda, the forum served to underscore the business case for private sector-led investment in development. Speakers emphasized the importance of good governance and economic growth and empowerment, and drew attention to USCIB’s recommendations.

“Business has a critical role to play, said Condon. “For example, investment flows dwarf government development aid. Businesses can leverage their resources and expertise in ways that drive growth in developing economies and bring innovative solutions to solve sustainable development challenges.”

Nguyen agreed. “Unlike the MDGs a decade ago, U.S. multinationals are more informed and engaged,” he told the forum. “They have shifted from mere observers to participants in promoting sustainable development.”

Other speakers at the CSIS forum included White House Counselor John Podesta and Daniella Ballou-Aares of the State Department.

Target for completion is 2015

The SDGs are slated to be completed and delivered to the UN General Assembly for approval in 2015, and the first round of deliberations to gather government views concluded on February 7. The international community is now awaiting a UN document compiling “priority areas” for further discussion on potential SDG goals and targets. Once it is released, USCIB will analyze this document for business issues requiring our engagement.

The UN SDG deliberations resume on March 3. USCIB will also develop elaborated papers on each of the four USCIB elements and other materials. Future USCIB action would also seek to inform government discussions on metrics for private sector investment in development.

Other discussions, convened by the president of the UN General Assembly and the UN Experts Group on Finance, will also contribute to developing the structure, priorities and resources needed for the UN Post-2015 Development Agenda. USCIB will continue to monitor and inform these deliberations through its SDG working group, which is co-chaired by Brian Lowry (Monsanto) and Nguyen, and participate through the Global Business Alliance for Post-2015 Development to convey U.S. business views.

Staff contact: Norine Kennedy

OECD Global Forum on Responsible Business Conduct

Published on March 3, 2014

OECD Forum on Integrity

BIAC will participate in the OECD Forum on Integrity on March 19, held as part of the OECD’s second annual Integrity Week (March 17-21), which includes a series of events relating to anti-corruption and integrity (click here). The forum will provide a platform for government officials as well as experts from international organizations, business and civil society to discuss best practices plus recent developments and projects relating to anti-corruption and integrity building. Klaus Moosmayer, chair of the BIAC Task Force on Anti-Corruption/Bribery will be part of the panel on new anti-corruption and integrity projects. On the same day, the BIAC Task Force will organize a luncheon discussion with the participation of the Chair of the OECD Working Group on Bribery to discuss BIAC’s strategic contribution to the OECD in this area.

For further information, please contact Shaun Donnelly (sdonnelly@uscib.org).

Last year, the OECD launched the annual Global Forum on Responsible Business Conduct to strengthen international dialogue on responsible business conduct and contribute to the effective implementation of the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises (MNEs).

This year’s Global Forum, which will take place in Paris on June 26-27, will take stock of the efforts in global responsible business conduct since the 2013 meeting, with a particular focus on developments in emerging economies and challenging investment environments.

Business participation in the forum is being organized through BIAC, the Business and Industry Advisory Committee to the OECD.

The forum will feature sessions on responsible investment in the textiles sector, stakeholder engagement in the extractive sector as well as responsible business conduct along agricultural supply chains and in the financial sector. The Forum will also include a session on the grievance mechanism of the OECD MNE Guidelines, as well as regional side-events.

The Global Forum will take place back-to-back with the meeting of National Contact Points of the MNE Guidelines, which will include a consultation with stakeholders, as well as other high-level events.

For further information on the Global Forum click here. Active business participation is encouraged. If you would like to participate, please contact Hanni Rosenbaum at BIAC (rosenbaum@biac.org).

Staff contact: Rachel Spence

More on USCIB’s Corporate Responsibility Committee

USCIB Takes Part in APEC Chemicals Meetings

Published on February 25, 2014

Sarah Green, senior science advisor with the State Department, and USCIB’s Helen Medina (right) at the APEC Chemicals Dialogue steering group meeting in Ningbo, China.

Earlier this month, Helen Medina, USCIB’s senior director for product policy and innovation, took part in the APEC Chemical Dialogue Steering Group and related meetings in Ningbo, China. The sessions were held in concert with the first APEC senior officials meeting of China’s host year.

The goal of the steering group meetings was to prepare for the upcoming APEC Chemical Dialogue meeting in August, which will take place in the northern Chinese city of Harbin.

The Chemical Dialogue is an important forum in which APEC officials and industry representatives come together for public-private dialogue on chemical issues in the Asia-Pacific region. It affords industry representatives an opportunity to work with regulators and trade officials from the APEC economies on a variety of project-based issues.

Prior to the steering group sessions, there was an industry meeting in which industry participants gathered to discuss their priorities going forward and to formulate industry-wide positions, which were then discussed with their government counterparts. During the discussion about the types of outcomes industry is seeking, Medina made an intervention about the importance of having the downstream user’s perspective in the work.

Medina also suggested that, in order to promote the common goal of regulatory coherence throughout the economies participating, it would be useful to identify the projects that each of these initiatives is undertaking that relates to the regulation of chemicals, and to describe the work that is being done.

The major themes of the steering group meeting dealt with regulatory cooperation and concrete projects. One item of particular importance to USCIB members is how confidential business information is being treated in APEC economies. USCIB has taken a lead by developing a survey to address this question.

Medina presented the objectives and importance of the survey. She reminded participants that no other international governmental organization, such as APEC, is discussing this topic and that the chemical dialogue has the opportunity to produce a work project to better understand how APEC economies are sharing information.

Once information has been gathered from the survey, the goal would be to foster a discussion on how the Chemical Dialogue can work to converge on how economies protect confidential business information, and what type of information is considered confidential. The analysis of the results will be reported in Harbin later this year.

Other items discussed included a proposal for a workshop on regulatory cooperation at the Harbin meeting, which won wide support. The goal is to highlight issues to consider when implementing best practices for chemical management. USCIB will volunteer to be on the steering committee which will develop the workshop.

Another item, which comes under the theme of sustainability, was related to a Cooperative Activity in the Asia-Pacific on Marine Debris. The idea is to a establish a work stream to promote regional awareness and adoption of strategies to effectively manage and extract value from municipal solid waste, and to energize collaborative approaches to reducing plastic marine debris, including efforts to reduce plastic packaging through innovative product. This work could also contribute to broader APEC work on ocean issues.

Finally, Medina updated APEC members on the Strategic Approach to International Chemicals Management (SAICM) UN Environment Program-led project on Chemicals in Products. She highlighted industry’s concerns with the project and urged Chemical Dialogue members to get in touch with SAICM representatives that are involved. Given the importance of the project, participants agreed that it is imperative to keep this item on the agenda for the Chemical Dialogue in Harbin.

At the end of the meeting, Ryan Macfarlane, the State Department’s principal APEC coordinator, was formally introduced as chair of the Chemical Dialogue, succeeding Barbara Norton of USTR, who has retired.

Staff contact: Helen Medina

More on USCIB’s Product Policy Working Group

USCIB Delivers Business Recommendations on UN Sustainable Development Goals

Published on February 4, 2014

In a January 31 paper, USCIB identified four broad prerequisites and catalysts for the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The paper sets out USCIB’s view that the SDGs and broader UN Post-2015 Development Agenda are vital to improving the UN’s contributions to development and sustainability. The USCIB SDG Recommendations also call for substantive engagement opportunities for representative business organizations to participate in and inform the UN SDG deliberations.

The USCIB SDG Recommendations focus on:

Good Governance
Economic Growth and Economic Empowerment
Innovation
Infrastructure

The paper highlights 10 issues that merit particular attention in the SDGs, with many elements in common with those set out in the UN High Level Panel on the Post-2015 Development Agenda. USCIB developed these Recommendations via its SDG Working Group chaired by Brian Lowry (Monsanto) and Tam Nguyen (Bechtel).

“The U.S. business community has a strong stake in meaningful and practical SDGs,” said Norine Kennedy, USCIB’s Vice President for Strategic International Engagement. “National implementation and the right conditions in-country are the foundations on which a UN new paradigm for international development should be based. The SDGs will be successfully put into practice in those countries that have institutions and practices in place, and involve their private sector in meaningful ways.”

USCIB, working with the Global Business Alliance for Post-2015 Development, will continue to weigh in at UN meetings to frame the SDGs, and in the High-Level Political Forum that will be held in New York this July. The SDGs are slated to be completed and delivered to the UN General Assembly for approval in 2015.

Staff contact: Norine Kennedy

APEC Leaders Identify Development of Regional Advertising Standards as 2014 Priority

Published on December 18, 2013

Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) leaders recently endorsed development work on best practice standards for regulating advertising at their ministerial meeting in Bali.

USCIB and the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) are actively supporting this process, and welcomed the endorsement as a step forward validating previous work in this area to establish greater consistency in the rules and application of advertising frameworks in the region. This move will enable the recommendations of the November 2012 Hanoi Dialogue on Advertising Standards and Principles and Practice to be implemented.

USCIB and ICC are working with the Advertising Standards Bureau Australia (ASBA), the European Advertising Standards Alliance, the World Federation of Advertisers and other partners to establish consistency based on international best practice frameworks and encourage greater capacity for economies wishing to build an effective advertising self-regulatory system.

The Consolidated ICC Code of Advertising and Marketing Practice, developed by the ICC Commission on Marketing and Advertising, serves as a foundation for self-regulatory structures around the world. It offers a baseline for APEC economies developing advertising principles while also providing flexibility for local laws and culture to be reflected in a national code.

“Common principles and advertising standards have wisely been recognized as a worthwhile pursuit by APEC economies,” said ICC Commission Chair Brent Sanders, assistant general counsel with Microsoft, who also chairs USCIB’s Marketing and Advertising Committee. “They offer the benefit of reducing trade barriers while offering an effective means to foster corporate responsibility and consumer trust. Alignment with international standards will help position advertising to serve effectively and responsibly as a valuable engine of economic growth across the region.”