Growth, Jobs and Open Markets Archives

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.

USCIB Promotes World IP Day; Encourages Members to Vote in Youth Video Competition

Published on April 20, 2022
Photo credit: WIPO

The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) is hosting their annual World Intellectual Property Day on April 26 with a focus on youth. The official theme, “IP and Youth Innovating for a Better Future,” recognizes the incredible and untapped potential of young people’s ingenuity and creativity which can drive the change the world needs to move to a more sustainable footing.

According to WIPO, IP Day 2022 is an opportunity for young people to find out how IP rights can support their goals, help transform their ideas into reality, generate income, create jobs and make a positive impact on the world around them. WIPO has been working with its member states and partners to create a legal and policy environment for young inventors, creators and entrepreneurs to thrive.

WIPO has also invited the public to vote on a youth video competition. The videos will demonstrate how young people perceive innovation and IP for a better future. Youth from sixty-three countries have submitted videos. Online public voting closes on April 22.

“Young people are the future and we must support them,” said USCIB Senior Vice President for Innovation, Regulation and Trade Brian Lowry. “We look forward to IP Day where we can better explore and understand how young people have been driving change.”

USCIB Supports “ITU International Girls in ICT Day” and Candidacy of Doreen Bogdan-Martin

Published on April 20, 2022

The International Telecommunications Union (ITU) has developed an initiative aimed at realizing greater inclusion in the digital economy, bridging the gender digital divide and encouraging young women throughout the world to study and pursue careers based on STEM skills.

This year, the ITU’s International Girls in ICT Day will be celebrated on April 28.

According to Barbara Wanner, USCIB vice president for ICT Policy, this year’s theme will be “Access and Safety,” a selection based on consultations with girls and young women, who indicated that they need safe and reliable access to the Internet and digital tools to pursue their STEM career ambitions.

“It is USCIB’s hope that events such as this will help to broaden global support for the candidacy of Doreen Bogdan-Martin, currently Director of the ITU Development Bureau, for ITU Secretary General when elections are held at the ITU Plenipotentiary, September 26-October 14, 2022, in Bucharest, Romania,” said Wanner.

USCIB featured a discussion about the ITU’s efforts to bridge the gender digital divide and encourage more young women to pursue STEM careers as part of our workshop at the 2016 Internet Governance Forum (IGF) – “An Internet of Women by 2020: From WSIS Vision to Reality.  “Our expert speaker, in fact, was Ms. Bogdan-Martin,” added Wanner.

 

USCIB Welcomes Korean Business Colleagues for Discussion on ILO, Labor and Trade issues

Published on April 13, 2022
Chairman of CJ Group Kyung Shik Sohn (left) and Peter Robinson (right) at USCIB’s NYC office.

Kyung Shik Sohn, chairman of CJ Group and of the Korea Enterprises Federation-FEK (and also Honorary Chairman of the Korean Chamber of Commerce and Industry-KCCI), visited USCIB President and CEO Peter Robinson on April 12.  Sohn was accompanied by CJ America CEO Hyunsoo (Hans) Shin. USCIB Senior Counsel Ronnie Goldberg and Vice President for Corporate Responsibility and Labor Affairs Gabriella Rigg Herzog, joined Robinson for USCIB.

FEK is USCIB’s Korean sister member organization in the International Organization of Employers (IOE). Discussion thus included an exchange of information and perspectives on ILO work in such areas as human rights, supply chains, forced labor and discrimination. KCCI, for which Sohn had served as longtime Chairman, is USCIB’s Korean sister national committee in the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) and also counterpart as National Guaranteeing and Issuing Association for the ATA Carnet export service.

According to Robinson, discussion also included respective perspectives on Korean and U.S. political environments and the recent Korean elections, U.S.-Korea trade relations and the importance to business of engagement with multilateral institutions. Sohn and Shin also provided an overview of the CJ Group and its American operations, a multinational corporation with operations ranging from Food/Food Services to Bio/Life Sciences, to Media/Entertainment, to Retail/Logistics.

USCIB looks forward to ongoing collaboration with KEF, KCCI and CJ Group.

USCIB Submits Comments to USTR on Indo-Pacific Economic Framework

Published on April 13, 2022

USCIB submitted comments this week on the trade aspects of the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework (IPEF), a new Biden Administration initiative to engage regional partners on economic and trade priorities. U.S. officials do not envision the IPEF to produce a traditional trade agreement, but to instead achieve better harmonization and liberalization in the areas of trade, supply chain resilience, infrastructure, decarbonization, tax and anticorruption.

USCIB members welcome the initiative and seek ambitious results. With a population of 1.5 billion people, 62 percent of world-GDP and 46 percent of the world’s merchandise trade, the Indo-Pacific region offers significant market potential for American companies and the millions of workers they employ.

“We urge the Administration to pursue a substantive agreement with concrete outcomes, common standards, and strong rules that are enforceable and binding,” said USCIB Director for Investment, Trade and China Alice Slayton Clark.  “An affirmative economic strategy in the Indo-Pacific is critical to advancing U.S. economic and strategic interests.”

USCIB’s comments emphasized the importance of free market principles, particularly in the wake of COVID-19: “As the world rebounds from COVID-19, the United States can contribute to an inclusive, even and robust recovery with stronger trade engagement in the region, a goal made more urgent today as democracy, rule of law and free market principles come under challenge. The IPEF must strengthen U.S. relationships in the region, create more resilient supply chains and ultimately make U.S. allies less vulnerable to China’s economic coercion.”

USCIB Contributes Business Insights at SHRM’s Workplace Policy conference

Published on April 6, 2022
SHRM’s Workplace Policy Conference

USCIB Vice President for Corporate Responsibility and Labor Affairs Gabriella Rigg Herzog participated in the SHRM Workplace Policy Conference on March 28.  As a panel moderator, Herzog facilitated a session titled, “The Global Economy and the Workplace: How our Interconnected World Impacts Lives and Livelihoods,” which featured world-leading economists: Chief Economist of the Burning Glass Institute Gad Levanon, Daniel Rogger, economist at the World Bank as well as Vice President and Chief Economist of the Progressive Policy Institute Michael Mandel.

According to Herzog, with a focus on how the shifting global economy impacts businesses, workers and workplaces, the panelists highlighted important policy levers, such as well governed labor migration, business initiatives like skills-based hiring, apprenticeships, and training and upskilling opportunities for current employees as effective measures policy makers and businesses can take as we work towards an inclusive recovery.

SHRM’s Workplace Policy conference was held March 27-29 in Washington, DC

USCIB Attends UN Global Biodiversity Framework Negotiations in Geneva 

Published on March 30, 2022

The United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity (UN CBD) convened the Open-ended Working Group on the Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF) in Geneva, Switzerland March 14 – 29 at the Centre International de Conférences Genève.  

Government delegations continued negotiations of the GBF, a proposed set of over twenty targets pertaining to international cooperative action by governments, business and other key actors to protect and steward biodiversity.  

USCIB Senior Vice President for Policy and Global Strategy Norine Kennedy and Policy and Program Associate for Sustainability Agnes Vinblad represented USCIB members during the second week of negotiations in Geneva, March 21 – 25. Kennedy and Vinblad followed developments related to USCIB’s priority targets determined by the USCIB Environment Committee: Target 7 (Pollution and Plastic Waste); Target 13 (Access and Benefit Sharing); Target 15 (Expectations of Business) and Target 17 (Biotechnology). USCIB supported members in attendance, including representatives from Bayer and CropLife.  

USCIB highlighted the importance of all-of-economy approaches, reflecting opportunities and risks in sustainable use and stewardship of biodiversity and ecosystem services. Since the Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework is intended to catalyze a participatory inclusive whole-of-society approach, USCIB will continue to advocate meaningful and substantive engagement for business.  

“Looking at new emerging issues for U.S. business relating to this international biodiversity deliberation, we see Digital Sequence Information (DSI) and the sharing of proceeds associated with utilizing this important resource for R&D as an increasingly critical topic,” said Kennedy.  

Target 15 addresses business and biodiversity, and USCIB is concerned about additional burdens on business that could be included in the GBF. Proposals under this draft target include calls for stronger requirements for businesses to assess, monitor, disclose and report dependencies and impacts on biodiversity across operations, value chains and portfolios. USCIB is following these developments closely and will provide members with further details on next steps.

USCIB collaborated with colleagues from ICC who were in attendance including Director of Peace and Prosperity Daphne Yong-d’Hervé and Global Policy Manager of Intellectual Property and Innovation Danny Grajales.  

While government delegations made some progress in the GBF negotiations, there will be a further meeting of the GBF Group June 21 – 26 in Nairobi, Kenya to continue negotiations before expected adoption at the resumed UN Biodiversity Conference (COP15) in Kunming, China to take place in the third quarter of 2022 with exact dates yet to be decided.  

USCIB Joins Stockholm+50 Preparatory Meeting at UN Headquarters   

Published on March 30, 2022
Agnes Vinblad

To commemorate the 50th anniversary of the United Nations (UN) Conference on the Human Environment held in Stockholm in 1972, the UN General Assembly will convene an international meeting in Stockholm, Sweden June 2-3, 2022. The theme of the meeting will be, “Stockholm+50: a healthy planet for the prosperity of all – our responsibility, our opportunity.”  

On March 28, the President of the General Assembly Ambassador Abdulla Shahid invited government delegations and civil society to partake in the Stockholm+50 Preparatory Meeting at UN Headquarters in New York. Representing USCIB, Policy and Program Associate for Sustainability Agnes Vinblad attended in person. The meeting was chaired by the Stockholm+50 co-hosts, Sweden and Kenya, with sessions organized around the three Stockholm+50 Leadership Dialogues: 

  • Leadership dialogue 1: Reflecting on the urgent need for actions to achieve a healthy planet and prosperity of all.  
  • Leadership dialogue 2: Achieving a sustainable and inclusive recovery from the coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19).  
  • Leadership dialogue 3: Accelerating the implementation of the environmental dimension of sustainable development in the context of the decade of action and delivery for sustainable development.  

Plenary interventions focused on topics such as mitigation and adaptation, climate finance, sustainable production and consumption, nature-based solutions, and the recommendations outlined in the UN Secretary General’s Report, “Our Common Agenda.”  

“This preparatory meeting emphasized systemic change and the need for new ways to measure economic success through a lens of sustainability and intergenerational justice with an ambition of achieving a just transition,” said Vinblad. “USCIB sees Stockholm+50 as an opportunity for business to yet again show its unparalleled ability to not only contribute to – but also take the lead on – sustainable development.” 

Adopted on June 16, 1972, the UN Stockholm Declaration was the first document to recognize the interconnections between development, poverty, and the environment. Building on this heritage, Stockholm+50 will be a global conference focused on multilateral dialogue to accelerate action on the SDGs towards the realization of Agenda 2030, while serving as a critical steppingstone for the global multilateral community on the path towards UNFCCC COP27 in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt in November.  

Building on the commemorative nature of Stockholm+50, Vinblad said that USCIB wants to fit business into that narrative, showing that the private sector has been concerned with issues related to sustainability and climate change since the inception of the Stockholm Declaration in 1972. 

USCIB Congratulates the Newly Elected ILO Director General Gilbert Houngbo

Published on March 30, 2022
Left to right: USCIB Senior Counsel and ILO Governing Body Member Tom Mackall shakes hands with ILO Director General Elect Gilbert Houngbo of Togo.

The United States Council for International Business (USCIB) warmly congratulates Gilbert Houngbo of Togo for his election as Director General of the International Labor Organization (ILO). Elected by the ILO’s Governing Body, made up of government, worker and employer members, Director General Elect Houngbo will be the eleventh Director General of the ILO and the first from the African continent.

USCIB Senior Counsel and ILO Governing Body Member Tom Mackall was present in Geneva to cast a vote on behalf of U.S. Employers during this important election.

This election comes at a critical time, and many of the workforce challenges that existed before the pandemic have come into sharper focus in the past two years.

Of this election, USCIB President and CEO Peter Robinson said, “Building forward together will require our best thinking on how to shape labor market regulations to drive growth and innovation, prepare current and future workers for coming industrial revolutions, and ensure inclusive opportunities for all in the future of work. Director General Elect Houngbo’s years of experience in leadership roles in international organizations, including the ILO, make him an exceptionally qualified candidate. USCIB and our Members look forward to the opportunity to work with Mr. Houngbo on these critical challenges.”