Growth, Jobs and Open Markets Archives

Bit-by-Bit Won’t Get it Done on US-China BIT Negotiations

Published on September 15, 2015

by Shaun Donnelly, USCIB’s vice president for investment and financial services

When Chinese President Xi Jinping visits Washington later this month for what may well be the final full-blown U.S.-China summit of the Obama administration, there will be a lot of important bilateral and global issues on the agenda – cyber security, South China Sea, democracy and human rights, climate change, Internet freedom, North Korea, Iran, Syria and a whole lot more.  But I want to make a strong plea that the U.S. and Chinese governments also use this upcoming summit to push for real breakthroughs on the long-running U.S.-China negotiations on a bilateral Investment treaty – the “U.S.-China BIT.”

The U.S.-China BIT has the potential to be a win-win agreement to provide broad legal protections, market-opening and dispute settlement mechanisms for foreign direct investment (FDI) flows in both directions. China already has over 100 BITs with other nations, so current and potential U.S. investors are presently at a disadvantage in competing for investment opportunities in China’s fast-growing economy.  And make no mistake, this is not a one-way street; Chinese investors are already investing, and looking to invest more, in the U.S., which we should welcome to help increase investment, jobs and economic growth here at home.

Continue reading the full post on Investment Policy Central.

TPP: A 21st Century Trade Agreement

Published on September 14, 2015

by USCIB President and CEO Peter Robinson

Golden_GateLike many in the U.S. business community and other key stakeholders, we at USCIB and our member companies are eagerly anticipating a successful and swift conclusion to the long-running Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) negotiations. We are encouraged by senior White House National Economic Council official Carolyn Atkinson’s suggestion last week that a successful conclusion may be imminent.

Experience dictates that the endgame of any international negotiation is always more complicated, more challenging and less predictable than foreseen. However, getting a comprehensive, ambitious, high-standard TPP agreement over the finish line is absolutely a top priority for our organization and our member companies. A strong TPP is good news for American workers, companies, communities and taxpayers.

From what I have heard about the prospective TPP agreement, I am forcefully reminded how different this agreement will be from other trade agreements that have gone before. We love NAFTA, CAFTA and the network of bilateral and plurilateral FTAs the U.S. has built over the past 30 years. They have paid tremendous dividends for our country. But it is not just for semantic reasons that the TPP is branded as a “Partnership.” rather than a “Free Trade Agreement”; the TPP goes well beyond a traditional FTA.

Continue reading the full post on Investment Policy Central.

ICC Launches Global Export Finance Committee

Published on September 11, 2015
The launch of the ICC Global Finance Committee took place on September 7 in Barcelona, Spain.
The launch of the ICC Global Finance Committee took place on September 7 in Barcelona, Spain.

The International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) launched the “ICC Global Export Finance Committee,” an export finance working group supported by many leading banks across the export finance industry.

Operating under the umbrella of the ICC Banking Commission, the committee is the first step towards building a real global export finance community – representing medium- and long-term (MLT) export finance banks.

The Global Export Finance Committee has three key objectives:
  1. To create a credible standing global discussion forum of banking experts in MLT export financing,
  2. To create a representative body to discuss industry matters with various stakeholders,
  3. To advocate for and help develop improvements and efficiencies through the standardization and harmonization of processes and regulations.

“The Global Export Finance Committee fills a much needed role in the export finance industry,” said Eric de Jonge, head of structured export finance at ING Bank, who chairs the working group. “It aims to not only act as a discussion forum and a body to exchange information and views on export finance but also to enable improvements and increase the efficiency of the processes and regulations governing the export financing industry as a whole.”

Although the export financing industry as a whole is relatively small, it serves an important purpose for OECD governments as well as governments in emerging markets, enabling and facilitating international trade and economic activity. Indeed, governments in many countries are exploring how they can more efficiently support exports, investments and trade.

Not only has the industry observed changes in regulatory requirements such as Capital Requirements Regulation (CRR) and Basel III, it also faces changes in the value chain concerning Export Credit Agencies (ECAs). These developments, together with the involvement of the capital markets, mean it is necessary for banks active across the industry to reach a common approach.

ICC has already made a first step towards reaching a common approach through the inclusion of MLT trade and export finance products in the influential ICC Trade Register Report. The dedicated Trade Register working group has successfully evolved into a platform of active banks that are responsible for ECAs, and that supports transaction data gathering.

While the Trade Register working group focuses primarily on data gathering, there are many more topics relevant to the export finance industry. Cooperation with ECAs, advocacy before governmental and regulatory bodies, standardization, and harmonization, as well as the exchange of views and data to the extent allowed under anti-competition laws, are just a few of the areas that can be explored further by the ICC Global Export Finance Committee.

Download ICC Global Export Finance PDF Document here

Business Leaders Deliver Priorities to the G20

Published on September 11, 2015

B20 2015 ConferenceMore than 1,400 business leaders and CEOs from 65 countries gathered in Turkey, Ankara for the 2015 Business-20 (B20) Conference from September 3 to 5. The three-day event marked the completion this year’s B20 recommendations and provided an opportunity for the business community to share its priorities with Turkish President Erdoğan ahead of the G20 Leaders’ Summit in Antalya in November. Turkey is the G20 host nation for 2015. Ronnie Goldberg, USCIB’s senior counsel, attended the conference.

During his opening remarks President Erdoğan thanked B20 Turkey Chair Rifat Hisarcıklıoğlu, who also serves on the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) Executive Board, for hosting an effective B20 process.

“The B20 is the most inclusive of all G20 engagement groups and the regional consultations and events organized by B20 Turkey have made the B20 the most important business platform in the world,” said President Erdoğan. “Turkey will support the B20 recommendations at the G20 Summit in November.”

Rob Mulligan, USCIB’s senior vice president for policy and government affairs, participated directly in meetings of the B20 Trade Taskforce, the recommendations of which are available on the B20 website. At the meetings, Mulligan helped focus the taskforce on 3 recommendations:

  1. pressing for ratifications and implementation of the WTO Trade Facilitation Agreement;
  2. rolling back protectionist measures with a focus on localization barriers to trade;
  3. improving the global trade system for the emerging digital economy including rolling back cross-border data flow restrictions.

Several of USCIB’s member companies had representatives active on the various B20 taskforces.

ICC and USCIB Chairman Terry McGraw led a delegation of the ICC G20 Advisory Group to Ankara for discussions with business and government representatives. ICC Leadership actively participated in the conference, with McGraw, ICC Secretary General John Danilovich and ICC G20 CEO Advisory Group Chairman Marcus Wallenberg delivering business priorities to the opening plenary sessions.

“Growth and job creation should remain at the top of the G20’s priorities,” said McGraw. “These objectives can be achieved by promoting structural reform within G20 economies; by liberalizing trade and investment; by ensuring well-regulated, growth-enhancing financial markets; and by creating a healthy environment for innovation and new businesses.”

Addressing the G20’s past performance and growing demands for global governance, Wallenberg suggested that the G20 focus its attention on implementation of previously agreed reforms and commitments before introducing new areas of work. To illustrate his point Mr Wallenberg highlighted the ICC G20 Business Scorecard as a tool to monitor the G20’s performance on implementing B20 recommendations.

A highlight of the B20 Conference was the official introduction of the World SME Forum (WSF) as a mechanism for implementing the many SME recommendations developed under B20 Turkey. The WSF is a new global platform co-founded by ICC and the Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges of Turkey (TOBB) to amplify the voice of SMEs and unlock their potential to stabilize the economy and stimulate economic growth, trade and employment.

“Never before has the B20 taken such a robust approach to correcting the imbalances in the SME sector”, said Mr Danilovich during a special plenary session on the WSF. “I would like to thank the Turkish government and B20 Turkey for championing economic inclusiveness and support to the SME sector as key priorities in 2015.”

With over 21 panel sessions and 123 speakers, the Ankara conference was the largest business gathering in the B20’s 6-year history.

The 2015 G20 Leaders’ Summit will be held in Antalya on November 15-16.

ICC Open Markets Index: More Effort Needed on Trade

Published on September 3, 2015

2015 OMI_twitter_G20_sourceDespite repeated pledges to enable trade as a driver of growth and job creation, G20 economies are failing to demonstrate global leadership on trade openness according to the ICC Open Markets Index 2015 (OMI), published on September 3.

The report – commissioned by the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) – shows that G20 nations rank below the global standard in terms of openness to trade, with only Germany placing among the world’s top 20 open markets. Singapore and Hong Kong head the 2015 rankings for the third successive edition of the report, far outstripping major economies such as the United States in terms of trade openness.

The Index scores 75 countries on a scale of one to six on four key factors: observed trade openness, trade policy, openness to foreign direct investment and trade-enabling infrastructure. In doing so, the Index also monitors government follow-through on longstanding G20 commitments to boost global trade flows, including pledges made at last year’s leaders’ Summit in Brisbane, Australia.

The latest edition of the Index reveals that 16 of the G20 economies score only average or below average in terms of their overall openness to trade. The two lowest-scoring G20 economies are Brazil and India, though both economies have seen an increase in their score from last year.

“As world leaders look for new engines of growth in the current economic environment, the OMI data shows that there is still substantial scope for G20 leaders to take action to boost global trade,” said ICC Secretary General John Danilovich. “Rolling back protectionism and implementing reforms to facilitate trade flows should be cornerstones of a revitalized G20 agenda to promote renewed growth and stability in the global economy.”

Read more on the ICC website.

Business Urges U.S., China to Minimize Tech Economy Barriers

Published on August 12, 2015

Computers_loresNew York, N.Y., August 12, 2015 – The United States Council for International Business (USCIB) has joined leading American business and technology groups in urging President Obama to use his upcoming summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping to improve the bilateral relationship for the U.S. information and communications technology (ICT) sector.

In a joint letter, the groups noted that the two countries have, for nearly four decades, “consistently pursued a mutually beneficial policy of encouraging economic openness and reducing barriers to bilateral trade and investment, including in the ICT sector.” But they said the benefits of that cooperation “are now at risk, as a result of increasing and proliferating threats to national cyber-security as well as China’s approach to defining its national security interests.”

The business groups said that, since the last U.S.-China summit in November 2014, China has “increasingly pursued policies that have adversely affected the ability of U.S. ICT firms to do business in China.” They called on the two countries to reaffirm their commitments to open markets, particularly in the ICT sector.

The groups also urged the U.S. and China to ensure that measures to protect national security affecting the ICT sector are necessary, narrowly-focused and minimize disruption to open trade and competition.

The full text of the industry letter is available at https://uscib.org/uscib-content/uploads/2015/08/2015_08_11_china_ict_letter.pdf.

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, 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, jhuneke@uscib.org

TPP Ministers Make Progress, But Fail to Seal the Deal

Published on August 3, 2015

Maui_sunset_resizedNegotiators from the 12 Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) parties, meeting in Maui last week, failed to hammer out the final text of a TPP agreement, although they did say they made substantial progress on a number of important issues.

According to reports, negotiators could not bridge final differences over several longstanding disagreements, including Canadian dairy market access, Japanese barriers to rice and other agricultural imports, automotive supply chain issues, and U.S. demands for strong intellectual property protections, including for a new generation of pharmaceuticals. Japanese Economy Minister Akira Amari said that trade ministers would seek to meet again before the end of August, and that only one more meeting would be necessary to finalize a TPP deal.

The U.S. Coalition for TPP, which groups a large number of leading companies and industry associations, including USCIB, issued a statement that read in part: “The TPP represents an important step toward greater cooperation and economic engagement among the 12 partners of the TPP in the Asia-Pacific region, and the United States must continue to pursue the closure of negotiations. We applaud U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman and his team for their work on the TPP and we are hopeful that the progress made during this round has built the necessary momentum for the swift closure of negotiations.”

Throughout the TPP negotiations, USCIB and the coalition have emphasized that it is more important to get the most ambitious, highest-quality TPP agreement than to meet any artificial deadlines.

 

ICC Chairman, Chinese Vice Premier Strengthen Business Ties

Published on July 30, 2015
L-R: Terry McGraw (ICC) and Chinese Vice Premier Wang Yang
L-R: Terry McGraw (ICC) and Chinese Vice Premier Wang Yang

International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) and USCIB Chairman Terry McGraw met with Chinese Vice Premier Wang Yang in Beijing on July 29 to underscore the importance of incorporating the voice of Chinese companies into global economic governance forums.

McGraw held a series of meetings with Chinese government leaders and business officials seeking to secure the engagement of Chinese companies in ICC’s work to promote cross border trade and investment.

“ICC is the world business organization and our mission is to represent the views of international business to policymakers in key forums such as the G20, the World Trade Organization, the World Customs Organization and the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change,” he said. “China has the world’s second largest GDP and is critical player in the world economy. It is therefore essential that Chinese companies are involved in ICC’s international policy-making process.”

Wang welcomed McGraw’s support and spoke positively of the indispensable role played by ICC in promoting economic growth, global trade and investment, and in strengthening global economic governance.

“We wish to step up our cooperation between Chinese companies and ICC,” said Wang. “China is willing to draw upon your suggestions and I hope ICC will play an active role in China’s reform and increasing exchanges with Chinese business to create more opportunities for foreign cooperation with Chinese companies.”

Wang said the China Chamber of International Commerce (CCOIC) – which houses ICC China – will be responsible for maintaining the close and frequent interactions with ICC.

McGraw also pointed to China’s upcoming G20 presidency, beginning on December 1, and explained that Chinese business will have an increasingly important opportunity to help shape the G20 policy agenda. McGraw shared current Business 20 (B20) priorities under development for the G20 Summit in Antalya, Turkey in November, highlighting trade, investment, infrastructure, human capital and education as priorities for G20 consideration.

“ICC has historically conveyed business priorities to G20 Leaders, and has served as a strategic partner to national B20 hosts to develop policy recommendations for G20 consideration,” said McGraw. “ICC is committed to supporting the Chinese government and the Chinese business community in its preparations for hosting the G20 and we are investing now in our long-run work plan with ICC China and CCOIC.”

Jiang Zengwei, chairman of the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade (CCPIT) joined McGraw in the meeting with Wang.

“We highly value the role of ICC,” said Jiang. “As we grow the participation of Chinese companies in CCOIC, we will work closely with ICC for support on educating Chinese businesses and incorporating their views in critical international policy forums, including trade, investment and intellectual property.”

McGraw and Jiang agreed to a long-term program, featuring a growing number of ICC meetings in China, to develop CCOIC contributions to ICC international business policy.

ICC’s delegation to Beijing also included Cherie Nursalim, vice chairman of GITI Group; Sara Dai, president of Novozymes China; Zhang Yanling, Bank of China and member of ICC Executive Board; Cindy Braddon, vice president for international affairs, McGraw Hill Financial [now S&P Global]; Jeffrey Hardy, director, ICC G20 CEO Advisory Group; and Robert Milliner, senior director, Wesfarmers and B20 Australia Sherpa.

 

 

USCIB, Members, Gov’t Reps Discuss China Engagement with U.S., OECD

Published on July 28, 2015

Blue sky and white clouds, ancient Chinese architectureOn the heels of both the U.S.-China Strategic & Economic Dialogue (S&ED) and the visit of Chinese Premier Li Keqiang to the OECD Headquarters in Paris, USCIB held an important briefing with members to discuss ongoing U.S.-China and OECD-China engagement. USCIB and members met with representatives from several U.S. government agencies, the OECD and the Electronic Industry Citizenship Coalition (EICC) on Wednesday, July 22 at Foley & Lardner LLP in Washington, D.C.

Audrey Winter from the USTR China Office, Michael Tracton from the Office of Investment in the State Department’s Economic Bureau and Zhao Li from the Department of Labor discussed outcomes of the S&ED regarding trade, ICT, investment and labor. Tracton also discussed the increasing collaboration between the OECD and China, which is exemplified by the recent agreement of Primer Li and OECD Secretary General Angel Gurría to develop an OECD-China work plan, as well as collaboration on Chinese responsible business conduct.

The second panel included the State Department’s head on conflict minerals, Eileen Kane, who reported out on her recent trip to China, where she met with several Chinese officials and agencies to gain important connections and advance the relationship with China in regard to conflict minerals. Tyler Gillard, head of sector projects and legal adviser in the responsible business conduct unit from the OECD’s Investment Division, also joined by video conference to provide an overview of the OECD’s broader outreach and capacity-building on conflict minerals with the China Chamber of Commerce. Tara Holeman, program director from EICC, discussed the Conflict-Free Sourcing Initiative (CFSI), which has been developed in line global standards including the OECD Due Diligence Guidance for Responsible Supply Chains of Minerals and the U.S. Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act.

USCIB Welcomes Expansion of WTO Information Technology Agreement

Published on July 24, 2015

ITA_manufacturing

New York, N.Y., July 24, 2015  – The United States Council for International Business (USCIB) welcomed today’s agreement among members of the World Trade Organization (WTO) to expand the 1996 Information Technology Agreement (ITA) to a wide array of additional products.

“These are critical, market-opening negotiations, with vast potential to boost U.S. exports,” said USCIB President and CEO Peter Robinson. “Combined with last December’s agreement on the WTO Trade Facilitation Agreement, this breakthrough further demonstrates the importance of keeping a robust multilateral track in the U.S. trade agenda.”

The original ITA helped cement the growth of electronic commerce and the digital economy by freeing up trade in many IT goods and services. But with the rapid growth of the Internet and digital technologies in the two decades since, many newer products fall outside its purview. A plurilateral undertaking among 54 WTO members, the ongoing ITA negotiations aim to lift tariffs on approximately $1 trillion worth of trade in high-tech products annually.

Robinson added: “We applaud the determination displayed by U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman and his team to get this important agreement done by this December’s WTO ministerial in Nairobi. We urge all WTO members to seize this momentum to finalize a deal as soon as possible.”

In May 2013, USCIB joined a wide array of high-tech and other business groups in urging negotiators to aim for a comprehensive, ambitious and commercially meaningful expansion of the ITA.

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, 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
+1 212.703.5043, jhuneke@uscib.org

More on USCIB’s Trade and Investment Committee

More on USCIB’s Information, Communications and Technology Committee