Business In Society Archives

SEC Issues Rules on Conflict Minerals

Published on August 30, 2012

Gold Rush Fuels DR Congo CrisisEarlier this month, the Securities and Exchange Commission adopted final rules to implement Section 1502 of the Dodd-Frank law requiring companies to publicly disclose whether they source four metals – tin, tantalum, tungsten and gold – from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) or an adjoining country, and whether doing so benefited armed groups in the DRC.

The eastern portion of the DRC has been affected by civil and military conflict for decades, leading to numerous UN and other international efforts to stem the violence.  Section 1502 was included in Dodd-Frank to respond to concerns that armed groups in the DRC are using mining and minerals trade to help finance the conflict.

“While the SEC rules included some limited changes sought by business, they still contain many overly prescriptive and burdensome provisions, and are likely to ensure the continued de-facto embargo of minerals from the DRC as companies seek to avoid having to report under the rules,” said Adam Greene, USCIB’s vice president of labor affairs and corporate responsibility.

Additionally, Greene noted that the SEC failed to conduct an adequate cost-benefit analysis of the new rules:  even though the SEC increased their cost estimate from $71 million to $3-4 billion, the new figure still falls well below other estimates that range from $8 to16 billion, and no effort was made to quantify the benefits of the new rule.  As a result, it is nearly certain that one or more U.S. business groups will sue the SEC to block the adoption of the Final Rules.

Independent from the SEC rulemaking process, the OECD has developed due diligence guidance for sourcing minerals from areas of conflict  minerals and is currently coordinating a multi-stakeholder process to help companies and trade associations implement the guidance.  The SEC rules explicitly recognize the importance of OECD guidance as the only meaningful international benchmark to which corporate due diligence measures must conform.

Given the important role of the OECD guidance in these or any SEC rules, USCIB has participated directly in the OECD’s work, in order to ensure that the guidance is practical, reasonable and risk-based.  USCIB will continue to play this role going forward and has taken on a leadership role in the governance of the process, which will help us to ensure that it remains effective and well balanced.

Staff contact: Ariel Meyerstein

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Big Turnout for APEC Women in the Economy Forum

Published on June 28, 2012

On June 20 the State Department’s Office of Global Women’s Issues, in partnership with USCIB and the National Center for APEC, held the first APEC Women in the Economy Forum: Private Sector Working Group. The half-day workshop was attended by over 50 members of the private and public sectors, including many USCIB members who also participated on panel discussions. The workshop served to bring actionable recommendations and input from U.S. stakeholders to the APEC Women in the Economy Forum taking place in St. Petersburg June 28-30. The June 20 meeting was opened by U.S. APEC Senior Official Ambassador Hans Klemm and Ambassador-at-Large for Global Women’s Issues Melanne Verveer.

The APEC forum’s work focuses on four main pillars: Access to Capital, Access to Markets, Skills and Capacity Building and Women’s Leadership. The workshop held panel discussions around each pillar and explored how the four pillars factor into the six topics that Russia is focusing on during their host year, which are: Innovation, Entrepreneurship, Work-Life Balance (or Integration), Corporate Management, IT and Investments in Human Capital. Representatives from USCIB member companies including Deloitte, Eastman Chemical, Intel and Qualcomm were asked to give their expertise in these areas and talk about best practices from their companies.

USCIB Executive Vice President Ronnie Goldberg led discussion on Access to Markets and brought attention to the OECD’s Gender Initiative and BIAC’s recently published report, “Putting ALL Our Minds to Work: Harnessing the Gender Dividend,” which was delivered to the OECD in May. The report advocates the business case for women’s economic empowerment and puts forth policy recommendations to further efforts to maximize the benefits of gender diversity. The BIAC report echoes what APEC is advocating through its Policy Partnership on Women in the Economy.

Attendees brought up many ideas/recommendations and areas where more work needed to be done including, but not limited to:

  • Skills and capacity building—need for more science and technology education
  • Developed vs. developing country divide—access to business and finance training
  • Mentoring and sponsorship
  • Professional development plans in SMEs
  • Sharing information to grow stronger and not to duplicate efforts.

The workshop set a strong precedent for future meetings of the APEC Women in the Economy Forum which is part of APEC’s Policy Partnership on Women in the Economy. We hope that as this work stream evolves and gains momentum going into Indonesia’s host year of 2013, that we will see more private sector engagement across the board. USCIB plans to continue to work with our partners to provide opportunities to engage to our members. We will share an official summary of the workshop with members when available in the coming weeks.

After the workshop, attendees joined USCIB and NCAPEC at a reception where USCIB’s Goldberg provided a welcome address and introduced Lorraine Hariton, the State Department’s special representative for commercial and business affairs. Hariton congratulated the group on a positive and productive session and spoke to the importance of working together to get the message out and share best practices and recommendations to advance women’s role and success in the global economy.

USCIB will work with NCAPEC to hold a de-brief with the State Department early next month to update members on the St. Petersburg meetings and discuss next steps leading to Indonesia as well as further plans for the working group.

Click here to view photos from the reception.

Staff contact: Justine Badimon

Self-Regulation Experts Gather at ICC Seminar on Consumer Savvy Marketing

Published on June 28, 2012

Consumer Savvy MarketingAn engaging roster of top consumer protection and advertising self-regulation experts from the United States and around the world made the line-up of speakers at an ICC seminar on Consumer Savvy Marketing held in New York City on June 7. This seminar, hosted by USCIB and the ICC Commission on Marketing and Advertising, provided the opportunity for companies and legal experts to stay up to date with the dramatically changing landscape of marketing campaigns and to better understand how rules apply to technological and practice developments.

Participants enjoyed a dynamic and informative keynote presentation on the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) activities and new projects by Lesley Fair, Senior Attorney of FTC’s Consumer Protection Bureau. Ms. Fair shared examples of recent U.S. advertising cases to illustrate how the FTC enforcement serves as a unique backstop to industry self-regulation efforts discussed later in the event. She discussed the FTC’s recently released privacy report and advised that companies with the most success in this area pursue a privacy-by-design approach to their business activities. Ms. Fair offered examples of cases in new media, explained the testimonials and endorsement guides in practice and gave an update on the review of the FTC green guides.

When asked how the FTC’s handles compliance when a company has campaigns overseas or with international cases, she noted that the FTC has worked with other consumer protection bodies in a cooperative fashion. She was also called on to share U.S. experiences with developing economies and notes that the U.S. boasts over a 90% compliance rate for self-regulation.

The seminar also included three discussion panels, addressing: Social Media Pitfalls and Best Practices, Privacy, Marketing and Self-Regulation and Mobile Marketing and Applications: Developments to Watch.

“The seminar provided us with an important opportunity to bring together a dream team from the community of organizations and experts and to showcase the valuable work being done to make self-regulation work,” said ICC Marketing Commission Chair and Microsoft Corporation Associate General Counsel Brent Sanders. “It is definitely an exercise the commission would like to repeat and expand upon next year and beyond.”

ICC has been a major rule-setter in international advertising self-regulation since 1937, when the ICC Commission on Marketing and Advertising issued the first ICC Code on Advertising Practice – one of the most successful examples of business self-regulation ever developed. The revised Consolidated ICC Code of Advertising and Marketing Communication Practice was launched in 2011 along with CodesCentre.com, a one-stop resource for industry, regulators and academics on self-regulation and advertising.

Click here to read more on ICC’s website, including information on speakers and moderators.

Download a copy of the Consolidated ICC Code

CodesCentre.com

Staff Contact: Jonathan Huneke

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USCIB Welcomes Rio+20 Outcomes That Can Help Deliver Green Growth and Innovation for Sustainability

Published on June 22, 2012

Rio de Janeiro, June 22, 2012 – Responding to the results of the Rio+20 Summit, the United States Council for International Business (USCIB) expressed optimism that agreements reached at the summit would pave the way for American companies to contribute to greener growth.

“While the summit has not achieved all that we wished, Rio+20 has delivered a package of pledges that, taken together, could broaden the engagement of not just governments, but also business, in sustainable development and take it to a new level,” said Norine Kennedy, USCIB’s vice president for energy and environment.

Over 120 heads of state met in Rio this week to lay out international priorities for new actions and institutions in a broad range of areas, including scaling up technological innovation, improving access to sustainable energy, and advancing sustainable consumption and production – all of these deliverables were identified by USCIB as critical to a successful and practical outcome.

The Rio+20 agreement renews the commitment of the international community to sustainable development, and reaffirms the importance of promoting an economically, socially and environmentally sustainable future by engaging not just governments, but also other stakeholders and the business community.  Specifically, it provides for:

  • the launch of an international effort to frame Sustainable Development Goals, involving important partners, including business
  • the creation of a new international high level forum for sustainable development to raise the level of involvement of governments and other stakeholders, including business.

A large number of USCIB member companies attended the landmark event – more than at any previous UN environmental gathering.  They offered their expertise to negotiators and other important decision-makers gathered here, and participated in the Day of Business organized by the International Chamber of Commerce and its Business Action for Sustainable Development initiative.

USCIB, which launched the Green Economy Dialogue (GED) project last year to foster consensus among business, government and other stakeholders around green growth policies, held GED briefings in Rio, in cooperation with the Japanese and U.S. governments.  The briefings developed recommendations for globalizing green growth approaches, and explored options for public- and private-sector action and partnership.  Speakers from a wide range of companies and government representatives discussed green economy issues as substantive input to Rio+20.  They reflected the necessity of engaging all business sectors in greener growth and more sustainable practices.

USCIB Executive Vice President Ronnie Goldberg highlighted the urgent need to enact policy frameworks that will spur job creation.  “While we see the promise of job creation in new industries and sectors related directly to sustainability, reaching the full potential of greener growth will require sensible government policies to make all jobs greener,” Goldberg said at the U.S. Center Green Economies Dialogue event on June 18.

Encouraging corporate sustainability reporting was among the specific business recommendations set out in the text.  “U.S. companies will continue to explore approaches to communicate sustainability and will participate to share models of good practice in this area,” said Clifford Henry, associate director of corporate sustainable development with The Procter & Gamble Company and chair of USCIB’s Corporate Responsibility Committee.

USCIB’s Kennedy, who served as a member of the U.S. government delegation in Rio, said USCIB had represented the views of U.S. companies throughout the negotiating process.  “We underscored the importance of open trade and investment, and the need to protect intellectual property rights and proprietary information,” she said.  “We appreciate the U.S. delegation’s strong efforts to promote technological innovation in the Rio+20 outcomes.  We are pleased that governments rejected harmful provisions that called for weakening of IPRs, a reassessment of existing IPR and patent rules, or preferential access to transfer of technology.”

About USCIB:
USCIB promotes open markets, competitiveness and innovation, sustainable development and corporate responsibility, supported by international engagement and regulatory coherence.  Its members include 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 the International Chamber of Commerce, the International Organization of Employers and the Business and Industry Advisory Committee to the OECD, USCIB provides business views to policy makers and regulatory authorities worldwide, and works to facilitate international trade and investment. More at www.uscib.org.

Contact:
Jonathan Huneke, USCIB
+1 917.420.0039 (mobile), jhuneke@uscib.org

More on USCIB’s Environment Committee

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“G20 Governments Have Heard the Voice of Business,” Says USCIB President

Published on June 22, 2012
USCIB Chairman Terry McGraw (center), who also serves as vice chairman of the International Chamber of Commerce, speaks at the B20 Summit. ICC Chairman Gerard Worms is at left, and ICC Honorary Chairman Victor Fung at right.
USCIB Chairman Terry McGraw (center), who also serves as vice chairman of the International Chamber of Commerce, speaks at the B20 Summit. ICC Chairman Gerard Worms is at left, and ICC Honorary Chairman Victor Fung at right.

Earlier this week, USCIB President and CEO Peter M. Robinson attended the B20 business meetings preceding the G20 Summit in Los Cabos, Mexico, joining USCIB Chairman Harold (Terry) McGraw III and a host of global business leaders for intensive discussion and dialogue with G20 governments.

In a message to members reflecting on the summit’s outcome, Mr. Robinson wrote: “There is one thing I am certain of: G20 governments have heard the voice of business on a number of critical trade, investment and financial issues. To what extent the G20 truly listened to and learned from business will only be revealed through government actions going forward.”

The B20 Summit has become an annual accompaniment to the G20 Summit, attended by numerous business leaders and incorporating the involvement of each leg of USCIB’s global network – the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC), the International Organization of Employers (IOE) and BIAC, the Business and Industry Advisory Committee to the OECD.

Robinson said this year’s B20 meeting was a well-organized event that incorporated dialogue and exchange between business and government leaders, including both heads of state and heads of intergovernmental organizations, representing an opportunity for business to communicate its views. Position papers were developed through a consultative process established by Alejandro Ramirez, CEO of the Mexican company Cinepolis, who Robinson said “did a great job” as the B20 coordinator appointed by Mexican President Felipe Calderon.

Industry task forces organized by ICC and the World Economic Forum examined a wide range of issues in the lead-up to Los Cabos, with ICC leading the task force on trade and investment, which was co-chaired by ICC Honorary Chairman Victor Fung.  IOE Executive Vice President Daniel Funes de Rioja participated in the employment task force, which was co-chaired by USCIB Trustee Jeffrey Joerres, chairman and CEO of Manpower Inc. IOE and BIAC have organized business input to the G8/G20 labor ministerials.

In addition to Calderon, the B20 gathering was addressed by British Prime Minister David Cameron, Chilean President Sebastian Pinera, Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard, Korean President Lee Myung-bak, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and Benin President Yayi Boni. The heads of major intergovernmental bodies also participated, including World Bank President Robert Zoellick, IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde, OECD Secretary General Angel Gurria and WTO Director General Pascal Lamy.

According to Robinson, government leaders emphasized a common refrain:

  • a commitment to open markets and roll back protectionism
  • the importance of encouraging economic growth and job creation
  • a challenge to business to make its voice heard strongly and to go beyond basic recommendations
  • encouragement of the business community to measure results and actions by governments.

Robinson said business would indeed strive to hold the G20 accountable. “Certainly, the final communiqué endorsed a number of basic business messages,” he said. “I am optimistic and hopeful that the considerable energy that went into the organization of the B20 in Los Cabos will pay off in the long run, and that business will have a continued leadership role in the years ahead.”

Staff contacts: Rob Mulligan and Ronnie Goldberg

More on USCIB’s Trade and Investment Committee

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ICC Pledges to Take Outcome of Rio+20 Forward

Published on June 20, 2012

Rio+20The International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) welcomed the outcome document of the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development, Rio+20, as a stepping stone to achieve sustainable development while helping to eradicate poverty.

ICC also applauded the confirmation of the decisive role of multilateral approaches across all policy areas by governments and intergovernmental bodies to achieve a green economy. Only by striving towards a holistic and global policy framework can we enable governments, business, and all parts of civil society to scale-up and deliver solutions for sustainability.

Rio+20 has recognized that business plays a vital role in implementing sustainable development and the outcome document of the conference paves the way for increased engagement by all stakeholders, including the private sector, toward achieving green and more inclusive economies. ICC, however, also recognized the many interlinked sustainability and policy challenges remaining to scale-up and accelerate implementation for sustained, inclusive and equitable global growth.

“Rio+20 set out to provide a vision for implementing sustainable development and the outcome document helps chart a path,” said Jean-Guy Carrier, ICC Secretary General. “All of us – business, governments, civil society – now have a great challenge but also a historic opportunity and responsibility to take that vision forward by scaling up efforts to adapt to the 21st century, mainstreaming sustainability into all areas of our lives.”

Click here to read more on ICC’s website.

Staff Contact: Norine Kennedy

More on USCIB’s Environment Committee

Burmese Nobel Laureate Meets with Global Employers

Published on June 15, 2012
Aung San Suu Kyi address the International Organization of Employers, flanked by IOE Secretary General Brent Wilton (Left) and IOE Executive Vice President Daniel Funes de Rioja.
Aung San Suu Kyi address the International Organization of Employers, flanked by IOE Secretary General Brent Wilton (Left) and IOE Executive Vice President Daniel Funes de Rioja.

In a special session of the International Labor Organization’s annual conference in Geneva yesterday, the Burmese opposition leader and Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi was warmly welcomed on behalf of the International Organization of Employers (IOE) by IOE Executive Vice President Daniel Funes de Rioja of Argentina.  USCIB is the IOE’s American affiliate and serves as the voice of American business in the ILO.

Before inviting Suu Kyi to take the floor, Funes de Rioja reaffirmed the employers’ commitment to the tripartite values of the International Labor Organization including the fundamental principles and rights at work laid out in the 1998 ILO Declaration.

Suu Kyi noted that good employer-worker relations would be essential in bringing harmonious prosperity to Burma, and that business should, in considering investing in the country, consider such an endeavor to be a cooperative effort between employers, workers and government. “Investment in Burma should be democracy-friendly and human rights-friendly,” she said.  “this would help us to build Burma.”

In response, Funes de Rioja gave the assurance of the employers that they would work to build solid relationships with workers in Burma, with the respect of fundamental principles and rights at work forming the essence of such a relationship.

Words of support were offered to Ms. Suu Kyi from the IOE’s regional vice president for Asia, Kamran Rahman, as well as from employers’ spokespersons in Brazil, South Africa, Saudi Arabia and Venezuela.

As the employer spokesperson on the case involving Myanmar in the ILO over many years, Ed Potter, director of global workplace rights with The Coca-Cola Company and chair of USCIB’s Labor and Employment Policy Committee, welcomed Suu Kyi’s emphasis on democracy and human rights-led growth.  This, he said, provided a solid base for companies to enter Burma and paved the way for investment. He particularly thanked Suu Kyi for “defining how businesses enter your country …. very much in a human rights, workplace rights- focused environment.”

Staff contact: Ariel Meyerstein

More on USCIB’s Labor and Employment Policy Committee

ICC Seminar to Help Marketers Keep Up With New Legal and Self-Regulatory Developments

Published on May 7, 2012
Panel discussions will explain how companies, marketers, agencies and media should ensure their campaigns are being conducted responsibly
Panel discussions will explain how companies, marketers, agencies and media should ensure their campaigns are being conducted responsibly

Marketers and corporate counsel are invited to meet rules-writers and enforcers to find out if they are ‘consumer savvy’ at a half-day conference on how to navigate the changing landscape of advertising and marketing regulations. Organized by the ICC Commission on Advertising and Marketing, the seminar “Consumer Savvy Marketing: Understanding and Respecting Consumers Using Self-Regulation” will take place in New York City on June 7, 2012.

ICC, whose marketing and advertising self-regulatory rules form the basis for most countries’ national codes, will bring together global and local experts to examine such issues as privacy, data protection and child-directed advertising, as marketing continues to migrate online.

Panel discussions will explain how companies, marketers, agencies and media should ensure their campaigns are being conducted responsibly in light of the changing laws and not lead to backlash from consumers, regulators or self-regulatory bodies.

Participants will have a chance to hear from and meet speakers from the Federal Trade Commission, the US, EU and international self-regulatory community, as well as senior executives from global corporations, such as Disney, Microsoft and AT&T, Google and News Corporation who deal with these issues on a national and international scale.

Legal directors and corporate counsel advising on advertising regulatory issues, company privacy officers, corporate managers handling US and global marketing campaigns, business consultants and counsel from law firms, as well as government regulators dealing with privacy issues, are all invited to attend.

Staff Contact: Jonathan Huneke

Consumer Savvy Marketing Program

Register online and benefit from a special ICC members rate.

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ICC Marketing Commission Appoints Sheila Millar as Vice Chair

Published on May 3, 2012
Ms. Millar brings important technical understanding and legal expertise to the work of the commission
Ms. Millar brings important technical understanding and legal expertise to the work of the commission

The International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) is pleased to announce the appointment of Sheila Millar, partner of Keller and Heckman to the post of vice-chair, Commission on Marketing and Advertising.

Ms. Millar has been leading the Commission’s Working Group on Sustainability for five years and has played a critical role both in the development ofICC’s Framework for Responsible Environmental Marketing Communications and the advocacy efforts undertaken to promote it. With vast experience counseling companies, regulators and government in the fields of sustainability and environmental claims, marketing and advertising to children and data protection, Ms. Millar brings important technical understanding and legal expertise to the work of the commission. An active advocate of ICC work, Ms. Millar has presented ICC codes and guidance to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development Consumer Policy Committee and recently at a United Nations Environment Program International Workshop on Product Sustainability Information.

“Sheila’s appointment is a welcome addition to the leadership team of the commission. Her extensive experience and wealth of knowledge have been invaluable in developing recent ICC work products, engaging new participants and advocating ICC guidance to audiences around the world,” said Brent Sanders, chair of the ICC Commission on Marketing and Advertising and associate general counsel of Microsoft Corporation.

Ms. Millar will be representing the commission and sharing her expertise at upcoming events in New York. On 7 June, the ICC Commission on Marketing and Advertising will present a seminar entitled ‘Consumer Savvy Marketing’ that will address privacy, data protection and child directed advertising, especially in the context of new technology and social media. Ms. Millar has also been invited to present the environmental claims framework at an ICC event in conjunction with the RIO+20 conferences (20-22 June 2012), where heads of states, government representatives and others will meet to shape the future of our social environment and economy.

Click here to read more on ICC’s website.

Staff Contact: Jonathan Huneke

More on USCIB’s Marketing and Advertising Committee

ILO-World Bank Report Details Countries’ Response to Jobs Crisis

Published on April 23, 2012

On April 20 in Washington, USCIB Executive Vice President Ronnie Goldberg took part in the launch of a joint report from the International Labor Organization (ILO) and the World Bank detailing how countries reacted to the recent financial and economic crisis – and its dramatic effects on employment.  The two groups also unveiled a new online data tool with the first comprehensive stocktaking of countries’ jobs-related policy responses to the crisis.

Delivering on a request by the G20 leaders at their 2009 Pittsburgh summit, the report, “Inventory of Policy Responses to the Financial and Economic Crisis,” demonstrates how governments across the globe and of all income levels used labor market interventions to limit the economic and social impacts of the crisis and spur employment, household income, and economic growth, and reduce poverty. This new online data tool (available at www.ilo.org/crisis-inventory) provides a detailed track record of policies enacted during the height of the financial crisis, and implications for the design of policies to address future economic downturns.

The report reveals that in most of the 55 low-income and middle-income and 22 high-income countries surveyed, unlike previous crises, there was considerable government intervention to mitigate the impact of the downturn. Not only did a majority of affected countries use expansionary fiscal and monetary policies to stimulate the economy, they also directly intervened to protect or create employment, preserve skills and facilitate the matching between job-seekers and employers, and protect the incomes of the unemployed and vulnerable groups. In many cases, social dialogue helped guide the policy response. This was critical, for instance, when implementing work-sharing arrangements.

Staff contact: Ariel Meyerstein

More on USCIB’s Labor and Employment Policy Committee