The 91st Session of the OECD Committee on Digital Economy Policy (CDEP), which convened May 10-11, featured substantively rich discussions on various topics of interest and concern to USCIB members, according to USCIB VP for ICT Policy Barbara Wanner, who was on the ground in Paris covering the meetings as part of a Business at OECD delegation.
Topics included the launch of the Global Forum on Technology (GFT) under theme “Shaping Our Future at the Tech Frontier,” the AI Governance Working Party’s future work on generative AI, and the OECD’s potential role in taking forward the G7’s call for the Institutional Arrangement for Partnership (IAP) to operationalize the Data Free Flows with Trust (DFFT) concept, among other topics.
“A high point of the meeting was a presentation by Japan about the Ministerial Declaration of the G7 Digital and Tech Ministers issued on April 30,” said Wanner. “The Declaration calls for establishing the IAP to bring governments and stakeholders together to operationalize the DFFT through principles-based, solutions-oriented, evidence-based, multistakeholder and cross-sectoral cooperation.”
“The Declaration is an important foundation for operationalizing data free flow with trust and other bilateral/multilateral agreements to further trusted cloud environments, but there is more work to be done to unlock the full potential of digitization,” added Wanner.
Regarding the next GFT, Israel announced it will host the meeting on November 27 in Tel Aviv. The theme will be “Challenges Posed by Quantum Technologies and National Strategies for Emerging Technologies.” This will be followed by the 92nd OECD CDEP meeting, November 28-29, also in Tel Aviv.
According to Wanner, Business at OECD commended the work done to date in launching the GFT. BIAC also reiterated its interest in making meaningful contributions to the GFT, noting that more than 60 percent of investment in new technologies is from the private sector.
Other topics addressed at CDEP that are of interest to USCIB members included, Transparency Reporting on Child Sexual Exploitation and Abuse (CSEA), a draft outline for a report on “Human rights in the digital age: shaping a human-centric digital transformation,” financing broadband networks of the future, identifying common guideposts for identifying AI risks and developing a comprehensive roadmap on generative AI.
Business at OECD further noted the relevance of its May 9 workshop on “Privacy, Immersive Technologies, and the Metaverse,” which is part of a project dedicated to exploring the implications of immersive technologies on for the OECD Privacy Guidelines and urged that this work be fed into the GFT process. The USCIB Foundation has been supporting this project.
Finally, the CDEP Secretariat announced the appointment of Jerrard Sheehan as new director of the OECD Science, Technology, and Innovation Bureau (STI). Sheehan, who succeeds Andrew Wyckhoff, will begin July 10, 2023. He is currently Deputy Director for Policy and External Affairs at the National Library of Medicine at the U.S. National Institutes of Health and will bring more than 30 years of experience in policy development, scientific data, and information technology.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) has the potential to drive economic growth and commercial activity, as well as to improve lives. AI deployment and applications have swept across many sectors and have been embraced by a broad array of companies, beyond traditional “tech companies.” However, different frameworks and standards for AI have also emerged, aimed at ensuring that AI systems are “human-centric” and “trustworthy” and to safeguard against AI misuse that can undermine personal privacy and online security protections, support decision-making biases that exacerbate social inequality and cause disruptions in the labor market.
USCIB filed a 
The United Nations Commission on International Trade Law’s (UNCITRAL) Working Group III (WG III) reached agreement on a code of conduct for arbitrators during meetings at the United Nations headquarters in New York late last month. While the code of conduct imposes some limits on roles arbitrators can take in investment disputes proceedings, USCIB successfully advocated for narrower restrictions.
Rick Minor
Barbara Angus, Principal and Global Tax Policy Leader, Ernst & Young LLP
Pat Brown, Washington National Tax Services Co-Leader, PwC U.S.
Danielle Rolfes, Co-Leader, Washington National Tax – International Tax, KPMG LLP
USCIB Senior Director for Customs and Trade Facilitation Megan Giblin was in Paris earlier this month attending the second workshop of the OECD Task Force on Countering Illicit Trade E-Commerce Expert Group and the 11th Plenary of the OECD Task Force on Countering Illicit Trade (TF-CIT). Giblin attended these meetings as part of a Business at OECD (BIAC) private sector delegation, which also included experts affiliated with or participants from many USCIB member companies including, among others, Abbott, Amazon, BAT, eBay, HanesBrands, Lego, PMI and Walmart.
The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) held its Community Forum in Cancun, March 11-16, to discuss the pending launch of a new round of top-level domain names, governance issues related to the selection of a new ICANN President and CEO as well as combatting Domain Name System (DNS) abuse. USCIB Vice President for ICT Policy Barbara Wanner was on the ground, joining over 1100 attendees across 164 countries and territories.
Rick Minor, USCIB VP and International Tax Counsel, is happy to announce five new appointments to the Tax Committee Leadership Team (Vice-Chairs). Leadership team members serve a two-year term with an option to renew for a second, consecutive term.
Lennaert ten Cate, SVP Tax, PepsiCo Inc. Lennaert has over 28 years of tax experience of which 25 with PepsiCo Inc. Prior to serving as SVP Tax, Lennaert served as SVP, International Tax, leading the corporate tax agenda for PepsiCo’s international operations and partnered with the business and other corporate functions on various business initiatives and M&A transactions. Lennaert has worked in the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Hong Kong and in the US, where he is currently based. Prior to joining PepsiCo in 1996, Lennaert spent three years at Ernst & Young Tax Advisory in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. Lennaert holds a Master of Law degree from Leiden University, the Netherlands.
Carolina Perez-Lopez, VP Global Tax Planning and Tax Counsel, Johnson & Johnson. In her role, Carolina is responsible for driving the tax strategy and execution for acquisitions, divestitures, licensing deals, and restructurings for the enterprise, as well as the tax planning for the Pharm and MedTech businesses worldwide. Prior to joining Johnson & Johnson, Carolina was Vice President, Transfer Pricing and Senior Tax Counsel at Pfizer. Before that, Carolina worked as a counsel at Clifford Chance LLP, spending time both in New York and London. Carolina holds a JD and Master of Laws (LLM) in Spanish Taxation from the Universidad de Navarra, Spain, and an LLM in International Taxation from New York University, School of Law.
Erik Rosenfeld, VP Taxes, North America, Procter & Gamble. Erik leads the North America Tax Operations Team of The Procter & Gamble Company. In this role, Erik’s responsibilities cover US GAAP external reporting on tax matters, North America direct and indirect tax compliance, M&A and cross-border tax issues, global tax technology and various global tax policy matters. From 2018 – 2021, Erik led P&G’s European Tax organization from P&G’s international headquarter location in Geneva, Switzerland. Prior to joining P&G, Erik spent 18 years in public accounting, including six years as an international tax partner with PwC.
Wendy Unglaub, VP, Chief Tax Officer, and Principal Tax Counsel, General Mills. Wendy leads the global tax function at General Mills, with responsibility for managing all aspects of the company’s tax profile from compliance to litigation to identifying solutions to business needs. Prior to joining General Mills, Wendy served in a variety of leadership positions at Microsoft Corporation, Ecolab and Cargill where she was responsible for a wide range of U.S. and international tax matters related to legislative policy, joint ventures, divestitures, mergers, acquisitions, capital market transactions, audits, litigation, intellectual property and strategic corporate tax planning. Before her in-house roles, Unglaub practiced law at the firms of Davis Polk & Wardwell (New York), and Morgan Lewis & Bockius (Philadelphia). Wendy holds her A.B. from Harvard University, JD from Georgetown University Law Center and post-doctorate LLM (Taxation) from New York University School of Law.
Jason Weinstein, Vice President, Tax, North America, Amazon. He and his teams are responsible for all U.S. federal and state as well as Canadian tax planning and tax policy, sales and property tax compliance, and tax-business partnering for Amazon’s North American Stores. Jason and his team also cover worldwide M&A, investments, debt offerings, internal structuring, and other special project areas. Prior to joining Amazon, Jason worked at the law firm Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver and Jacobson in New York, where he specialized in tax planning for M&A as well as private equity fund formation and strategic joint ventures. Jason has taught tax law at the University of Washington Law School and is a frequent speaker at the usual tax conferences. Jason received his undergraduate degree from Cornell University and his JD, cum laude, from the University of Michigan Law School. Prior to law school, Jason served as briefings director for the Governor of New Jersey.
USCIB argued for a permanent extension of the WTO moratorium on customs duties on electronic transmissions during a March 9 meeting of the OECD Working Party of the Trade Committee.