Growth, Jobs and Open Markets Archives

UN High Level Political Forum Countdown: Ending Poverty

Published on May 15, 2017

This year’s United Nations High-Level Political Forum (UN HLPF) on sustainable development will be held from July 10-17 under the auspices of the Economic and Social Council. The theme for the forum will be “Eradicating poverty and promoting prosperity in a changing world” focusing in part on Sustainable Development Goal 1: ending poverty in all its forms everywhere.

As part of USCIB’s countdown to the UN HLPF, USCIB is highlighting some initiatives that its member companies are working on to end poverty in all its forms, while subsequently meeting the SDG targets set by the UN. These examples can be found on USCIB’s Business for 2030 website and highlight initiatives by DuPont, MasterCard and Qualcomm.

Tune in for next week, when we will highlight company initiatives on Goal 2: ending hunger, achieving food security and improving nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture.

USCIB Weighs in With Administration on Trade Deficits

Published on May 15, 2017

With the Trump administration seeking to reorient U.S. trade policy toward bilateral agreements, bilateral trade deficits have been put forward as a marker of the health — or lack thereof — of U.S. commercial relations with a given country. USCIB has taken up this issue in a recent statement to the Department of Commerce.

In its statement, USCIB said: “On the specific issue of trade deficits, particularly bilateral deficits (or surpluses) with individual countries, USCIB supports the view of most mainstream economists, who are convinced that trade deficits are a product of broader macroeconomic factors, not trade policy, and that the trade balance should not be viewed as a straightforward indicator of a country’s economic health. While it is useful to address trade barriers that impede access for U.S. goods and services exporters to specific markets, we should not set up bilateral trade balances as the metric of successful trade policies.”

Furthermore, the USCIB statement argued for greater attention to trade in services, not just goods, in any analysis of trade balances. “In the United States, services account for almost 80% of GDP, and services jobs account for more than 80% of private sector employment,” USCIB said. “Accordingly, a trade policy focused solely on trade deficits in manufacturing is misleading.”

The Commerce Department is expected to hold hearings on trade deficits later this week.

Shiles Joins USCIB as Head of ATA Carnet and Trade Services

Published on May 15, 2017
Andrew Shiles

New York, N.Y., May 16, 2017 – Former FedEx executive and cargo industry veteran Andrew Shiles has joined the United States Council for International Business (USCIB) to lead the association’s dynamic portfolio of trade services, including the “merchandise passports” used by thousands of exporters around the world to get goods through customs quickly and easily.

As senior vice president of ATA Carnet and trade services, Shiles will work to expand U.S. trade interests through promotion of the ATA Carnet program. ATA Carnets are internationally recognized customs documents that permit temporary duty-free, tax-free entry of qualified goods for up to one year. They are used widely to facilitate entry of goods for trade shows, product samples and professional equipment.

“Andy Shiles brings extensive experience to this position,” said USCIB President and CEO Peter Robinson. “He has in-depth knowledge of trade and customs affairs, including ATA Carnet, and relationships with clients ranging from multinational corporations to SMEs to freight forwarders. In addition, Andy has strong connections with U.S. Customs, and has engaged in a number of important industry trade associations.”

USCIB manages and guarantees the ATA Carnet system in the United States, with responsibility for issuing ATA Carnets falling to two outside service providers, Roanoke Trade and the Corporation for International Business. ATA Carnets are accepted in 84 countries and territories, while the global ATA systems is overseen by the World Customs Organization (WCO) and the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC). USCIB serves as ICC’s American national committee.

Shiles comes to USCIB following more than 30 years at FedEx Express, the world’s largest air express cargo company, most recently as global regulatory compliance manager, where he served on USCIB’s Customs and Trade Facilitation Committee. His leadership experience in global supply-chain management includes participation in U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s Simplified Entry Working Group, which redesigned and implemented the current entry-clearance process into the United States.

Shiles also has extensive experience working with multiple government agencies, including the Food and Drug Administration, Department of Agriculture and Consumer Product Safety Commission. A self-professed “Yankee with a Southern accent,” Shiles was born in Manhattan and raised in the Southwest and in Tennessee, where he received his bachelor’s degree from the University of Memphis. He is a member of the International Compliance Professionals Association and the American Association of Exporters and Importers.

Find out more about the services offered by USCIB to facilitate cross-border trade and investment at www.uscib.org.

Contact:
Jonathan Huneke, VP communications, USCIB
+1 212.703.5043 or jhuneke@uscib.org

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 leading international business organizations, including ICC, USCIB provides business views to policy makers and regulatory authorities worldwide, and works to facilitate international trade and investment.

Upcoming Arbitration Events: Global YAF

Published on May 15, 2017

International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) Global Young Arbitrators Forum (YAF) Event:

ICC Young Arbitrators Forum (ICC YAF) is organizing its 6th Global Conference in New York City on June 9-10, 2017 with a welcome reception on June 8. The conference will be hosted by Columbia Law School. The event will host preeminent speakers from Latin America, North America, Europe, Middle East and North Africa and Asia.

Additional program details, registration and a detailed agenda are available here.

State Department Briefs USCIB on US National Action Plan

Published on May 12, 2017
Melike Yetken (U.S. Department of State) addresses the USCIB Corporate Responsibility and Labor Affairs Committee

Melike Yetken, a senior advisor for corporate responsibility with the U.S. Department of State, provided an update for approximately 40 USCIB members on May 2 on the U.S. National Action Plan on Responsible Business Conduct (NAP). Yetken’s update was part of USCIB’s bi-annual Corporate Responsibility and Labor Affairs Committee, which took place over two days in Washington, DC. In her update, Yetken discussed the goals of the NAP – to emphasize positive contributions and to mitigate negative aspects and highlight that the U.S. is the only government that has written a NAP on responsible business conduct.

“This first U.S. NAP lays a great foundation,” said USCIB Vice President Gabriella Herzog, who recently came on board to lead USCIB’s practice on corporate responsibility and labor affairs. “This is particularly so since it brings together in one place all of the initiatives in which the entire U.S. government has been engaged for years – and in many instances, leading global efforts, whether on government transparency and anti-corruption or forced labor, child labor and human trafficking.”

USCIB co-hosted the first public consultation on the NAP two years ago and has since advocated alongside its global partners and other major business organizations for the U.S. and other governments to develop these strategic planning tools to implement the State Duty to Protect under Pillar 1 of the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights. When done well, NAPs can help support businesses in implementing their responsibility to respect human rights in their own operations and those of their business partners.

Committee Chair Laura Rubbo of Disney presided over these meetings, which were hosted at the offices of Foley and Lardner. The meeting spanned various pressing topics such as the OECD Due Diligence Guidance for Responsible Business Conduct, the International Labor Organization’s (ILO) program on decent work in global supply chains, the Customs Tariff Act of 1930 and human rights and mega-sporting events. USCIB members also heard from former USCIB staffer Adam Greene in his capacity as senior advisor for the Bureau for Employers’ Activities at the ILO who gave an exclusive update on the ILO Program on Decent Work in Global Supply Chains.

 

Giblin Speaks on American Bar Association Panel on Customs

Published on May 9, 2017

USCIB’s Director for Customs and Trade Facilitation Megan M. Giblin spoke at the spring meeting of the American Bar Association Section of International Law event last Friday, April 28. The event featured more than 60 panels highlighting different aspects of the theme of the conference – “New Leaders, New Laws: 2017 and Beyond.” Giblin spoke on a panel titled “U.S. Measures to Combat Human Trafficking; Responses in the Corporate World,” along with Alice Kipel of U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), Ken Kennedy of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Eric Gottwald of the International Human Rights Forum.  The panel was tied to the topic of forced labor and the provisions of the Trade Facilitation and Trade Enforcement Act (TFTFA) of 2016, which repealed the “consumptive demand” clause in 19 U.S.C. §1307.  The focus was on what happens at the ICE and CBP levels on the issue of forced labor, the work industry is carrying out as members are getting caught up in the import prohibition tied to the issuance of Withhold Release Orders (WROs) by the CBP Commissioner, as well as the matter of submissions made by, for example, Civil Society Organizations seeking action under 19 U.S.C. §1307.

Since 15 days after the passage of TFTEA, CBP has not been enforcing the “consumptive demand clause” there have been a series of WROs issued by the CBP Commissioner. All WROs now relate to specific companies in China. The product scope is stevia and its derivatives, peeled garlic as well as a series of chemicals some that can be mined and later manufactured into viscose rayon, for example. No new WROs have been issued since late 2016.

CBP is focused on stopping a specific shipment at time of import, ICE is focused on criminal actions tied to forced labor. What is clear is that the discretions are not the same.

As communicated by then CBP Commissioner Kerlikowski in Congressional testimony in September 2016, we know that there have been shipments stopped by CBP at time of import, which have resulted in either U.S. importers having to re-export the shipments and/or the importers having to provide significant amounts of information to CBP to prove that the specific shipment is clear and free from forced labor. Further, we understand that not only have some shipments been released by CBP for re-export, some shipments have been released for entry into the commerce of the U.S.

The main issue from the customs side is that once a WRO is issued and a there is a submission that links a specific importer, to a specific shipment, to a specific entity listed in a WRO, then U.S. import shipments can and are being detained at the customs border. The shipments are stopped under suspicion that the goods may have had forced labor in their supply chain. “From an industry perspective, there is concern over a shipment being held, transparency over why a shipment has been stopped, timeliness of communications with the importer, brand impact because of a a shipment being detained, not to mention that if information is shared about an importer who’s shipment is stopped there is not always clear communication to parties once an importer has proved  its supply chain is clean and the shipment has been released into the commerce of the U.S.,” said Giblin during her panel. “The regulations are from the 1960’s. Today’s supply chains, global value chains are extremely complex and lots of information must be provided to prove they have a clear supply chain.”

B20 Summit Attendees Reaffirm Commitment to Open Trade

Published on May 1, 2017
B20 Chair Jürgen Heraeus hands over the B20 Policy Recommendations to German Chancellor Merkel at the B20 Summit in Berlin

The two-day B20 Summit took place on May 2-3 in Berlin, Germany with the theme “Resilience, Responsibility, Responsiveness – Towards a Future-oriented, Sustainable World Economy.” Approximately 700 representatives from the B20 met for the final summit of the German B20 Presidency. USCIB’s President and CEO Peter M. Robinson was among them in his capacity as Co-Chair of the B20 Employment and Education Taskforce.

Among the many meetings that took place during the summit was an International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) G20 CEO Advisory Group that was facilitated by ICC Germany.  The meeting was chaired by ICC Secretary General John Danilovich.  ICC First Vice-Chairman John Denton also participated in the meeting, which brought together Group members at both Deputy and CEO levels, together with representatives from ICC Argentina, ICC Germany, ICC United Kingdom, and USCIB’s Robinson.

The meeting of the ICC Group was able to benefit from the participation of B20 Germany Sherpa Stormy-Annika Mildner. Mildner provided a detailed briefing of latest B20 activities and lessons learned thanking ICC for its sustained and substantive participation in the B20 task forces and working groups, and said that the summary of B20 recommendations would be presented to Chancellor Angela Merkel and sent to B20 members.  She explained the G20/B20 “compact with Africa” initiative – a partnership between the B20/G20 and 5 African countries (the Ivory Coast, Morocco, Rwanda, Senegal and Tunisia) to improve sustainable private sector development in African countries.

ICC Argentina Chairman Victor Dosoretz gave an update on preparations for the G20/B20 under Argentine presidency in 2018.  He explained that the six main business associations in Argentina – which were all part of ICC Argentina – would work together in an organizing committee for the B20.  Union Industrial Argentina Vice President Daniel Funes de Rioja, outgoing chairman of the International Organization of Employers, had been appointed as B20 Chairman by the Argentine government.  The B20 sherpa had not yet been selected.

The B20 Summit officially got underway with remarks by B20 Chairman Jurgen Heraeus who emphasized that the B20 managed to craft consensual positions on all major issues.  The B20 was united in its belief that trade increases prosperity worldwide, that protectionist policies are misguided and that policies are needed to help people who felt left behind by trade and technological change.

The B20 Task Force on Employment and Education, which is co-chaired by Robinson and which makes recommendations to the G20, promotes open, dynamic and inclusive labor markets, harnessing the potential of technological change through better education and training, and creating a global level playing field and promotion of fair competition for globally operating companies. The task force’s leaders recognize the need to address unemployment, raise labor force participation, improve education and work-force qualification and create framework conditions for quality jobs to ensure sustainable economic and financial development.

“With a high level of unemployment globally, employment and education have become core topics of the G20 and the B20,” said Robinson. “To address employment and training gaps, we [the B20 Employment and Education Taskforce] released a series of recommendations on investing in skills development, implementing commitments such as the ILO G20 training strategy and using technology as a complementary tool to improve access and adaption.” The B20 Taskforce on Employment and Education policy paper can be viewed here.

The G20 Summit will take place from July 7-8 in Hamburg, Germany.

OECD Organizes Industry Meeting Ahead of June Ministerial

Published on May 1, 2017

Ahead of June’s OECD Ministerial, Denmark, which holds the OECD presidency this year, organized a joint Business at OECD (BIAC) and the Trade Union Advisory Committee to the OECD (TUAC) consultation in Copenhagen with OECD member governments. USCIB’s President and CEO Peter Robinson gave remarks at the consultation on the importance of improving openness and competitiveness of economies as well as helping more people and companies of all sizes to participate.

“We are living through a period of rapidly changing technologies and economic policies, especially regarding cross-border trade and investment,” said Robinson. “Economic nationalism and isolationist sentiment are posing challenges to the OECD’s fundamental orientation of greater openness and cooperation. The economic context should focus minds – without a comprehensive competitiveness agenda for OECD countries, there will be less wealth creation and less room to increase living standards.”

Robinson recommended a regular publication of the Better Business Index to help governments understand and improve the key drivers of private sector growth. “We think this is vital so as not to lose sight of – or take for granted – the role of the private sector in creating wealth,” he said. Robinson emphasized the importance of developing a new OECD Strategy for SMEs and sensible policies to ensure sustainable growth of the digital economy.

The OECD meetings took place on the eve of the B20 Summit in Berlin.

USCIB’s Mulligan Weighs in on Asia Trade in Wharton Journal

Published on May 1, 2017

As the Trump administration moves to shift the focus of U.S. trade policy away from larger multilateral pacts and toward bilateral deals, USCIB Senior Vice President for Policy and Government Affairs Rob Mulligan was cited in a Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania online business journal Knowledge@Wharton in an article titled “Bilateral or Multilateral: Which Trade Partnerships Work Best?”

Mulligan was quoted emphasizing the importance of the Asia-Pacific region for USCIB’s membership, saying, “Our hope is that [the U.S.] will pursue some other approach that will continue to open those markets and ensure that U.S. companies are able to compete and have access in those markets. The multilateral approach, we generally felt, had advantages [in] that you could get many countries at one time… [A] lot of U.S. businesses benefit from the global rules-based trade system.”

The full article can be accessed here.

USCIB Urges Trump Administration to Remain Engaged in UN Climate Talks

Published on April 26, 2017

With senior advisors in the Trump administration set to meet tomorrow to discuss U.S. engagement in the UN and other international climate change discussions, USCIB has urged the administration to keep the U.S. seat at the table.

Earlier this month, in a letter to the White House, USCIB President and CEO Peter M. Robinson wrote: “In spite of challenges and shortcomings in the UN climate policy arena, USCIB reaffirms its support for the United States to continue as a Party to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the Paris Agreement.”

However, USCIB’s letter, which was sent April 17 to National Economic Council Director Gary Cohn, explicitly recommended that the U.S. place a number of conditions on continued engagement, including reassessing existing U.S. emissions reduction and related commitments under the Paris Climate Agreement in the context of broader consultation with the private sector.

The letter further recommended that the U.S. insist on greater access and transparency in the UN climate negotiation process for U.S. economic stakeholders, call on the UN to discourage unilateral trade measures related to climate, and work through the UN and other international forums to foster speedier development and deployment of environmentally sound technologies.

“Addressing climate change and its impacts will require a long-term international cooperative approach with due attention to national circumstances and priorities to assure ongoing economic development,” Robinson wrote. “USCIB members are convinced that U.S. engagement and leadership are required to champion economically sound approaches to energy and climate change risks that advance U.S. economic prosperity and create new job and market opportunities for U.S. businesses at home and abroad.”