Competitiveness and Innovation Archives

USCIB’s Annual OECD Tax Conference Focuses on Pillars One and Two

Published on June 29, 2022
OECD’s Pascal Saint Amans

Following a landmark OECD/G20 statement and implementation plan announced on October 8, 2021, multinational companies are now facing a global minimum corporate tax on their operations with multilaterally agreed limitations on said tax. The implementation plan at national levels, known as Pillar Two, seeks to address the tax challenges arising from the digitalization of the economy and was endorsed by G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors at their October 2021 meeting.

Such was the backdrop and main focus of USCIB’s 15th annual OECD International Tax Conference at the Four Seasons in Washington DC earlier this week (June 27-28), where more than 200 tax experts, OECD officials, multinational companies, as well as foreign and domestic government representatives gathered for the two-day event to discuss pressing global tax issues and developments, including Pillars One and Two.

“This conference took place at another critical point in the 2022 OECD timeline for designing Pillars One and Two for consensus in the Inclusive Framework and, eventually, implementation at the national level,” said USCIB Vice President and International Tax Counsel Rick Minor.

According to Itai Grinberg, deputy assistant secretary for multilateral tax office of tax policy at the U.S. Treasury, ““Pillar Two helps level the playing field. It will ensure that all U.S. and foreign headquartered MNCs face a common level of minimum taxation. And in doing so, this deal, as it has come to be, really answers the single most frequently heard international tax policy request made by the U.S. multinational business community for the entire course of the 21st century.”

“The stability of the international tax architecture is at stake here,” said Martin Kreienbaum, director general of international taxation at Germany’s Federal Ministry of Finance. “I think the international tax architecture is the predictability of tax burden for tax payers from a tax payer perspective. But it’s also the avoidance and absence of double and multiple taxation. I think that is the main objective, the main purpose, under which we have the discussions in the inclusive framework.”

Many questions still remain around Pillar One however, especially in terms of better multilateral coordination around multiple and double taxation and how to build trust with tax payers.

“Together with the agreement on October 8, we had a detailed implementation plan with an extremely ambitious political timeline,” reflected Pascal Saint Amans, Director of the OECD Center for Tax Policy and Administration. “Keep in mind that the overall debate and the deal was still concluded against the background of transatlantic tensions with the previous administration and the need to show that we are restoring better relationships among the countries at stake and cooling down on threats of multilateral measures or trade sanctions.”

Other panels during the conference focused on the tax implications of an increased global mobility of workers arising from the pandemic, tax and climate change, a global minimum tax, dispute prevention and resolution, and much more.

USCIB members from Deloitte, Google, Procter & Gamble and Ernst and Young, among others, joined as panelists to contribute their companies’ perspectives on these pressing taxation issues.

More information on the agenda, speakers, and topics of discussion can be found here.

USCIB is the national affiliate of Business at OECD (known as BIAC), the official multi-jurisdictional business advisor the to OECD.

Featured speakers included:

  • Grace Perez-Navarro – Deputy Director, Centre for Tax Policy and Administration, OECD
  • John Peterson – Head of Unit, Aggressive Tax Planning, OECD Centre for Tax Policy and Administration
  • Achim Pross – Head of International Cooperation and Tax Administration Division, Centre for Tax Policy and Administration, OECD
  • Pascal Saint-Amans – Director, Centre for Tax Policy and Administration, OECD
  • Rick Minor – Vice President & International Tax Counsel, USCIB
  • Itai Grinberg – Deputy Assistant Secretary (International Tax Affairs), U.S. Treasury
  • John Hughes – Director of Field Operations, Northeastern Compliance Practice Area (Mid-Atlantic) (LB&I), IRS
  • Rebecca Kysar – Counselor to the Assistant Secretary for Tax Policy, U.S. Treasury
  • Michael Plowgian – Co-Chair, OECD Task Force on the Digital Economy and Counsellor, Office of Tax Policy, US Treasury
  • Isaac Wood – Attorney-Advisor, Office of Tax Policy, US Treasury
  • Martin Kreienbaum – Director General, International Taxation, Federal Ministry of Finance, Germany
  • Fabrizia Lapecorella – Director General of Finance of the Italian Ministry of Economy and Finance and Chair of OECD Committee on Fiscal Affairs
  • Gaël Perraud – Co–Chair, OECD Task Force on the Digital Economy; Director of International Taxation and European Affairs, Ministry of Economy and Finance, France
  • Mike Williams – Director, Business and International Tax, HM Treasury, United Kingdom
  • Barbara Angus – Global Tax Policy Leader, Ernst & Young LLP
  • Mary Bennett – Senior Counsel, Baker & McKenzie
  • Ryan Bowen – Senior Manager, Washington National Tax Office, Deloitte
  • Nate Carden – Partner, Skadden
  • Liz Chien – Global Head of Tax and Chief Tax Counsel, Protocol Labs Inc.
  • Tracee Fultz – Global Transfer Pricing Leader, Ernst & Young LLP
  • John Harrington – Partner, Dentons US LLP
  • Hannah Hawkins – Principal, KPMG Washington National Tax, KPMG
  • Harris Horowitz – Managing Director, Global Head of Tax Policy & Innovation, BlackRock, Inc.
  • Tom Hutchinson – Vice President, Finance, Google
  • Mark Martin – Principal, Washington National Tax, KPMG
  • Tim McDonald – Chairperson, USCIB Tax Committee and Senior Vice President, Finance & Accounting, Global Taxes, The Procter & Gamble Company
  • Alan McLean – Chairperson, Business at OECD Committee on Taxation and Fiscal Affairs and Executive Vice President, Tax and Controller, Shell International Limited
  • Will Morris – Deputy Global Tax Policy Leader, PwC
  • Loren Ponds – Member and Co-Lead of the Tax Policy Practice, Miller & Chevalier
  • Tom Roesser – GM, Tax Policy Counsel, Microsoft
  • Danielle Rolfes – Co-Partner in Charge, Washington National Tax-International Tax, KPMG
  • Sonja Schiller – Head of Global Tax Controversy, Netflix
  • Daniel Smith – Director, International Tax Planning & Policy, Google
  • Liz Stevens – Member, Caplin & Drysdale
  • Bret Weaver – Partner, KPMG
  • Louise Weingrod – Vice Chairperson, USCIB Tax Committee and Vice President, Global Taxation, Johnson & Johnson
  • Lisa Wolski – Head of Government Affairs and Senior Executive Counsel, General Electric

USCIB Participates in ICC Sweden’s Sustainability Committee Meeting in Stockholm

Published on June 22, 2022

On the margins of the UN meeting, Stockholm+50, on June 3, ICC Sweden opened up their Sustainability Committee Meeting to the public and invited a group of speakers to discuss current environmental policy trends from a global perspective.

Representing USCIB, Agnes Vinblad, policy associate for sustainability, presented on key environmental policy developments of special importance to U.S. Business, including the recently agreed upon UNEA resolution on plastic pollution, and the preparations leading up to the UN Climate Change Conference (COP 27). In delivering her remarks, Vinblad emphasized the importance of USCIB’s guiding principles of open markets, competitiveness and innovation, and sustainable development and corporate responsibility for and by U.S. companies. Vinblad further mentioned the newly formed UN High Level Experts Group (HLEG) on Net-Zero Emissions Commitments on Non-State Entities, and what this development could mean for businesses and their voluntary net-zero carbon emissions pledges.  

For the section on Global Outlook on Sustainability Developments & New Regulations, Vinblad was joined by Mats Pellback Scharp, head of sustainability at Ericsson and Gabriel Lundstrom, head of ESG Investments at SEB. 

Justin Perrettson, chair of the Global ICC Commission on Environment & Energy, and co-chair of the USCIB Environment Committee, opened the meeting with an overarching presentation on global developments pertaining to sustainability and environmental policy and the role and work of ICC in these areas. 

Head of Delegation to UNFCCC at the Swedish Ministry of Environment Mattias Frumerie also participated in the meeting, speaking on goals and expectations ahead of COP27.  

“After two years of pandemic disruption, in-person meetings like this one are critical and offers valuable opportunities for discussion and collaboration,” said Vinblad, reflecting on a successful meeting. “As the U.S. affiliate of ICC, USCIB especially appreciated this meeting with ICC Sweden’s Sustainability Committee and the great value of coming together to compare challenges and opportunities across the EU and the U.S. as they pertain to environmental policy and regulation.”

Vinblad Speaks on Panel Co-Organized by ILO, UNEP and UNICEF at UN Stockholm+50

Published on June 22, 2022
Center: USCIB’s Agnes Vinblad

USCIB participated in the high-level international meeting, UN Stockholm+50 from June 2-3 in Stockholm, Sweden, joining over 4,000 other participants. The meeting was planned as a key milestone en route to the United Nations Conference of the Parties (COP27) in Egypt later this year. Furthermore, Stockholm+50 served as a means to reinvigorate and renew international environmental multilateralism after the worst impacts of the pandemic. The meeting commemorated the first UN Conference on the Human Environment held fifty years ago, also in Stockholm, in 1972. Topics such as the triple planetary crisis of climate change, biodiversity loss and pollution took center stage with plenty of references to the UNEA 5.2 resolution on plastics pollution, and, to principle 1 of the 1972 Stockholm Declaration – the right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment. 

Representing USCIB, and as one of the few U.S. business representatives on hand, was Policy Associate for Sustainability Agnes Vinblad. Vinblad was joined by Co-Chair of the USCIB Environment Committee Justin Perrettson (Novozymes), as well as Melissa Kopolow and Melissa Estok – USCIB members from Albright Stonebridge Group.  

The U.S. Government delegation was led by Special Presidential Envoy for Climate (SPEC) John Kerry and Assistant Secretary Monica Medina. USCIB was in regular contact with the U.S. Delegation in the lead-up to Stockholm+50 and Vinblad met with members of the delegation during the conference emphasizing the need to consider U.S. business views in these critical conversations.   

Nominated by IOE, Vinblad joined a panel co-organized by the International Labor Organization (ILO), the UN Environment Program (UNEP), and UNICEF on the role of private sector engagement in green jobs creation for youth. This panel was part of an official side event at Stockholm+50 titled Green Jobs for Youth and some of the key messages emphasized during the panel included: 

  • the green and circular economy may create 100 million jobs by 2030 – the private sector will stand at the core of this transition; 
  • the transition will have to be just to ensure that there will be a transition at all; 
  • green jobs in renewables and environmental protection are rapidly growing – a development clearly driven by the private sector.   

Vinblad was joined on the panel by Naoko Ishii, former chief executive of the Global Environment Facility and chairperson of the Global Advisory Board of the University of Tokyo; Vladislav Kaim, Children and Youth constituency to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (YOUNGO) Green Jobs focal point and UN Secretary General Youth Advisor on Climate Change; and Nate Williams, senior director, Economic Graph partnerships, LinkedIn. 

“Overall, Stockholm+50 furthered the trend toward convergence of current legally binding environmental deliberations, for example the development of a new Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework via the UN Convention on Biological Diversity and the recently adopted UNEA resolution on plastic pollution,” said Vinblad in summarizing the outcomes of the high-level UN meeting. “By allowing space to discuss all these critical topics and agreements in one joint forum, it yet again emphasized the need to act on the triple planetary crises of climate change, biodiversity loss, and pollution in a cohesive manner, guided by the true interconnectedness of these issues.” 

To find more details on the outcomes of Stockholm+50 and the ten Key Recommendations presented by the co-chairs Sweden and Kenya, please review this document.  

USCIB Comments on Proposed SEC Climate Risk Disclosure Rule, Emphasizing Considerations for Global Companies

Published on June 22, 2022

USCIB filed comments on June 17 on a proposed Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) rule on climate risk disclosure applicable to public companies. USCIB Committees on Corporate Responsibility and Labor Affairs, Corporate Governance and Environment all contributed to the development of USCIB’s SEC submission.

USCIB members support enhancing and standardizing climate-related disclosures, with due attention to ensure disclosures are material. In addition, USCIB members have made important commitments and are mobilizing action and investment to reduce GHGs and plan for near- and long-term risks, including those due to climate change.

The far-reaching proposed SEC rule has implications far beyond disclosure, according to USCIB Senior Vice President for Policy and Global Strategy Norine Kennedy. “The proposed rule will significantly impact private sector climate change planning and management practices in a variety of ways, including how companies oversee, manage, assess and mitigate climate risk and impacts of climate change, the data companies collect as well as how companies assess and validate that data,” stressed Kennedy.

Kennedy also stated: “these wider considerations raise several key questions for companies doing business internationally, and therefore warrant careful consideration, and an inclusive discussion with the business community as this proposed SEC rule is further developed.”

USCIB comments concentrated on five priority areas in the proposed rule as especially relevant to American companies across a wide range of sectors doing business in the global marketplace:

  • Inter-operability of the proposed SEC Rule with current and emerging regulations, standards, and initiatives abroad
  • Tracking and reflecting greenhouse gas emissions involved in complicated supply chains, including outside the U.S.
  • Tracking and reflecting Scope 3 Emissions, including outside the U.S.
  • Unintended consequences for future voluntary climate initiatives and goals
  • Assessing Climate and Transition Risks in multiple jurisdictions abroad

“The five areas indicated are significant considerations for the effectiveness of the proposed Rule, and if not addressed, would entail substantial costs and other burdens for U.S. business, while confusing investors with copious, non-material information,” added Kennedy. “Clarification and revision in these areas would benefit the viability of the proposed rule, while reducing unnecessary burdens on U.S. companies.”

USCIB Represents U.S. Business at United Nations Preparatory Meetings on COP27

Published on June 21, 2022

The United Nations concluded two weeks of preparatory meetings in advance of the next Climate Summit, known as COP27, which will be held November 8-18 in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt.  As the first official negotiations since Glasgow in 2021, this meeting brought all UN member states, UN bodies, business and other groups to discuss urgently accelerating implementation of the Paris Agreement.

According to USCIB Senior Vice President for Policy and Global Strategy Norine Kennedy, who was on the ground representing U.S. business, the intense session included special presentations of the most recent scientific findings of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), and technical roundtables under the “global stock take,” which will assess the need for and degree of additional greenhouse gas emissions reductions required to keep global temperature rise well below 2 degrees C. The session also took up further development of “Article 6” measures to allow carbon trading and offsets under the Paris Agreement. Working on the ground with Kennedy was also USCIB Policy and Program Associate for Sustainability, Agnes Vinblad.

In addition, new attention is now being directed toward the private sector with respect to voluntary pledges and initiatives, such as those announced last year at the Glasgow Summit. The UN Secretary General and the UNFCCC High Level Champions have each recently announced new initiatives to review such voluntary announcements to ensure they are being put into practice.

At a meeting with members of the U.S. Government delegation at Bonn, Co-Chair of the USCIB Environment Committee Justin Perrettson (Novozymes) called out the “importance of private sector innovation to tackle the inter-linked challenges of climate change, food security and energy transitions,” and went on to highlight the need to include business in the implementation phase of the Convention.

The most contentious issues in Bonn concerned mobilizing financial resources for adaptation to impacts of climate change, and the establishment of a fund to provide compensation for loss and damage caused by climate change.

As the host of COP27, Egypt is expected to place particular emphasis on food and water security, just transition, and adaptation for resilience. The International Chamber of Commerce (ICC), serving as the official focal point for business in the UNFCCC, has already begun dialogue with Egyptian government authorities on key topics relating to carbon markets, the role of SMEs and ways to further increase ambition across private and public sectors.

Temperatures Soared in Geneva and So Did the WTO!

Published on June 17, 2022

Washington D.C., June 17, 2022—Despite a shaky start, the WTO negotiators delivered a historic trade deal this morning. After hours of negotiations, the 164-country organization adopted the “Geneva Package” with commitments on some very difficult issues, including pandemic response, intellectual property, fisheries, food security, electronic commerce and institutional reform.

For many, this Ministerial was about the continued viability of the WTO. Recent struggles caused by increased protectionism and previous Ministerial Conferences that created few – if any – outcomes, raised serious questions about the rules-based trading system that grew out of the GATT in 1995. Concerns have ranged from relevance to functionality to value.

The WTO adoption of a ministerial decision to waive intellectual property rights on COVID-19 vaccines raises serious questions and presents a number of risks. This waiver under the WTO TRIPs Agreement will not solve vaccine access issues but, rather, it brings dangerous implications on incentives for innovation for future health challenges and future pandemic preparedness and response.  As disappointing and counter-productive as this decision is, business continues to work to advance vaccine literacy and fight COVID-19.

The Ministerial Statement on WTO Reform has charted a path forward for the trade body that is expected to address longstanding concerns and set a process for discussions on how the WTO can be reformed to be fit for purpose.

The “Geneva Package” covers a range of topics. A group of Ministerial Declarations was adopted on WTO response to emergencies covering food insecurity; export prohibitions on World Food Programme food purchases; and WTO pandemic response and preparedness.

A partial deal to curb fishing subsidies was reached; however, it fell short of a fuller agreement that has been under negotiation for more than 20 years. The agreement addresses rules to prohibit subsidies for illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing, while action on subsidies for fuel, ship construction and other areas was left unresolved.

Negotiators wrestled to address divergent views on the continuation of a moratorium on customs duties on electronic transmissions that has been in place since 1998 but was set to expire at the end of the ministerial. A handful of countries challenged the benefits of the digital economy for the developing world, seeking to end the moratorium, gain policy space to address the digital divide and collect needed customs revenues. Ultimately, delegates agreed to an extension of the moratorium with a commitment to study development impacts and revisit the issue at the next Ministerial Conference.

“USCIB congratulates WTO Director General Ngozi and all participants in MC12 for proving that multilateralism is alive and still functional in Geneva,” said Brian Lowry, USCIB Senior Vice President, who is reporting from Geneva at the ministerial meeting as an NGO delegate.

Several concerns about agriculture went without resolution. “The lack of a declaration on these concerns was a disappointment to some but the overall success of MC12 is noteworthy,” said Lowry.

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. USCIB is the U.S. affiliate of the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC), the International Organization of Employers (IOE) and Business at OECD. More at www.uscib.org.

USCIB Promotes Foreign Direct Investment Qualities Initiative at OECD Ministerial

Published on June 15, 2022

The OECD Ministerial Conference Meeting (MCM) took place in Paris June 9-10, focused on “The Future We Want: Better Policies for the Next Generation and a Sustainable Transition,” with a ministerial conference statement promoting sustainable economic recovery in the post-pandemic world, transition to sustainable and inclusive development, adoption of resilient health systems, among other important initiatives. Importantly, ministers at MCM adopted roadmaps for accession to the OECD for Brazil, Bulgaria, Croatia, Peru and Romania, opening up a key opportunity for USCIB to work through Business at OECD to advance member priorities in these countries.

At a side event, “Strengthening Sustainable Investment Policies,” Chair of the USCIB Trade and Investment Committee and Chair of Business at OECD Rick Johnston promoted the OECD FDI Qualities Initiative and the newly unveiled FDI Policy Toolkit for supporting sustainability goals. According to Johnston, the FDI Qualities Initiative is not only important to OECD members states but also to the developing markets they serve. “Sustainability indicators must be part of FDI regimes or the host country will not only suffer bad investments but also collateral problems.” He underscored that the private sector takes seriously sustainable FDI and urged countries to work closely in partnership with business in adopting policies that “make sense.”

On 10 June, the OECD Council Recommendation on FDI Qualities for Sustainable Development was adopted by OECD ministers. USCIB through Business at OECD (BIAC) strongly contributed to the FDI Qualities effort. Launched in 2018, the OECD FDI Qualities Initiative aims to better link FDI with sustainable development, focused on four Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs): productivity and innovation, job quality and skills, gender equality, and decarbonization. The Initiative includes:

  • The FDI Qualities Indicators provides data measuring the impacts of investments on SDGs in host countries; the FDI Qualities Indicators report for 2022, includes new sections on the green economy and resilience to the COVID-19 pandemic.
  • The FDI Qualities Policy Toolkit is a new product to help governments identify priorities to align investment policy and institutional reforms to sustainable development goals.
  • The FDI Qualities Policy Network is a platform for stakeholder consultation and exchange on sustainable investment policies.

USCIB Joins Pledge to Enhance Cyber Resiliency and Counter Evolving Global Threats

Published on June 15, 2022

In partnership with the Coalition to Reduce Cyber Risk (CR2), USCIB was among thirty-seven companies and organizations that pledged on June 8 to enhance cyber resiliency and counter evolving cross-border cyber threats, such as the growth of ransomware.

Signers to this groundbreaking pledge from eight countries have promised to encourage the development, evolution and implementation of risk-based approaches that rely on consensus-based standards and risk management best practices, support efforts of vendors and supply chain contributors to adopt risk-based cybersecurity approaches in order to help small businesses flourish while improving the resiliency of the cyber ecosystem, incorporate widely accepted international cybersecurity standards as a foundation of cybersecurity policies and controls wherever applicable and feasible, and periodically reassess cybersecurity policies and controls against revisions to cybersecurity standards and actively participate in industry-driven initiatives to improve those standards.

“CR2 is committed to driving a globally-aligned approach for managing cyber risk. Thirty-Seven organizations from eight countries have signed the Cyber Risk Management Pledge, demonstrating the breadth of usage of international standards such as ISO/IEC 27110 and 27103, as well as the NIST Cybersecurity Framework and associated sector profiles.” said
Benjamin Flatgard, President of CR2 and Executive Director of Technology and Cybersecurity Policy and Partnerships at J.P. Morgan Chase.

He added: “Governments should embed widely used international standards at the core of their national cyber policies to facilitate a seamless approach to shared cyber risk.”

For more information on the CR2 and the pledge, or if your company or organization is interested in joining the pledge, please visit https://www.crx2.org/

USCIB’s Statement of Priorities for the Proposed Global Digital Compact

Published on May 4, 2022

On occasion of the United Nations Secretary General’s inclusion of the proposed Global Digital Compact (GDC) as part of Our Common Agenda, USCIB released a statement of priorities, which highlights how digital technologies and the online environment act as drivers that help grow the global economy, bridge inequalities, foster creativity and innovation, build trust, and expand societal engagement and exchange.

USCIB’s statement outlines several specific issues as key to realizing improved digital cooperation, such as infrastruture, connectivity and spectrum; multistakeholder governance approaches; free flow of data; the avoidance of internet fragmentation; the importance of trust; open markets and predictable regulatory environments; protection of freedom of expression online; importance of Artifical Intelligence (AI); and finally accountability criteria for discriminatory and misleading content.

“Key to realizing the developmental benefits of digital transformation are policies that support an enabling environment for technology innovation,” said USCIB Vice President for ICT Policy Barbara Wanner. According to USCIB, such policies may address economic, social/cultural, technical, and governance issues, all of which are interlinked and cross-cutting. This holistic approach best ensures the development of an open, safe, highly secure, stable, interoperable, seamless and sustainable digital ecosystem with the potential to close development gaps and address other inequities.

 

OECD Event Attempts to Help Governments Develop Agile Governance

Published on May 4, 2022
Rick Johnston at the Agile Governance Symposium

The OECD, Business at OECD (BIAC) and the George Washington University Regulatory Studies Center co-hosted an event on April 26 on the need for agile and adaptable regulatory practices. The event, titled “Agile Governance for our Future: Reimagining Regulation to Support Innovation” was held in person in Washington, DC, at the REACH at the Kennedy Center and received programming support from both USCIB and USCIB member Google.

The program included a keynote by Cass Sunstein of Harvard Law School, a fireside chat with Google President of Global Affairs Kent Walker as well as remarks by BIAC Chair and USCIB Trade and Investment Committee Chair, Rick Johnston of Citi.

Additional panels featured the perspectives of policymakers, regulators and civil society, including Director General of the Danish Business Authority Katrine Winding, Assistant Secretary, Regulatory Affairs Sector of the Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat Tina Green and Susana Cordeiro Guerra, manager for institutions for development at the Inter-American Development Bank.

According to USCIB Policy Manager for Regulation and Trade Chris Olsen, who attended the Symposium, this event builds on the Fall 2021 release of the OECD’s Agile Governance Recommendation, which aims to help governments develop and implement agile and resilient regulatory approaches, and facilitate institutional co-operation both in response to, and to further stimulate, international innovation. This Recommendation received input and support from the Business at OECD (BIAC) Governance and Regulatory Policy Committee.

A full recording of the symposium will soon be available on both the OECD website and through George Washington University’s program page.