Trans-Pacific Partnership Archives

USCIB Welcomes Progress on Pacific Trade Talks

Published on December 10, 2013
U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman (second from right) with other TPP trade ministers in Singapore
U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman (second from right) with other TPP trade ministers in Singapore

New York, N.Y., December 10, 2013 – The United States Council for International Business (USCIB) today congratulated U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman and negotiators from the other Trans-Pacific Partnership countries on making substantial progress in the latest round of TPP talks just concluded in Singapore.

“The Trans-Pacific Partnership is  an essential element in expanding our access to fast-growing markets in the Asia-Pacific region, which will spur economic growth and job creation,” said USCIB President and CEO Peter Robinson. “We encourage negotiators to continue striving for  a comprehensive, high-standards trade and investment agreement.”

In a joint statement earlier today, negotiators said: “For all TPP countries, an ambitious, comprehensive and high-standard agreement that achieves the goals established in Honolulu in 2011 is critical for creating jobs and promoting growth, providing opportunity for our citizens and contributing to regional integration and the strengthening of the multilateral trading system.”

Robinson urged the TPP governments to intensify their efforts in January with the goal of wrapping up negotiations as soon as possible. “We in the business community are committed to helping our governments conclude an ambitious agreement in short order,” he said.

In addition to the United States, the TPP talks encompass Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore and Vietnam.

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

USCIB Joins Business Community Leadership at Launch of Congressional “Friends of TPP” Caucus

Published on October 30, 2013

Bipartisanship may be in short supply in Washington these days, but there are welcome signs of hope on the trade front. As a lead member of the steering committee of the Business Coalition for the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), USCIB participated in the October 29 launch of the bipartisan Congressional “Friends of TPP” Caucus.

The caucus’s four House co-chairs – Reps. Dave Reichert (R-WA), Ron Kind (D-WI), Charles Boustany (R-LA) and Greg Meeks (D-NY) – joined Singaporean Ambassador Ashok Kumar Mirpuri (speaking on behalf of the 11 TPP country ambassadors in attendance) and business representatives at the launch event in the Rayburn House Office Building.

The Business Coalition for the TPP issued a press release supporting the new caucus and committing itself to working closely with its leaders, in order to build Congressional understanding of, and support for, a TPP agreement that is ambitious, comprehensive, and high-standard.

“The quicker the better,” observed Shaun Donnelly, USCIB’s vice president for investment and financial services. “But USCIB and the business community have been very clear that the critical element here is getting a strong, comprehensive agreement, not racing to cut a mediocre deal in order to meet an arbitrary deadline.”

Staff contacts: Rob Mulligan and  Shaun Donnelly

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Business Urges APEC to Take Concrete Steps to Expedite Trade

Published on October 2, 2013

4607_image002New York, N.Y., October 2, 2013 – As leaders of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) economies get set to meet in Bali, Indonesia, a key pro-trade business group urged a number of concrete steps to free up trade and facilitate business in this fast-growing region.

The United States Council for International Business (USCIB) issued a comprehensive paper with priority issues and recommendations for APEC in 2014, when the group’s rotating host duties pass to China.

“APEC’s importance for U.S. and global business is growing,” said USCIB President and CEO Peter Robinson, who will be part of the business delegation to the Bali summit, which takes place October 5 to 7. “We are recommending a number of steps leaders can take to help ensure the region remains a center for growth and innovation.”

USCIB said several current or prospective APEC projects offer special promise to smooth trade relations among the economies. These include:

  • the APEC Chemical Dialogue, which USCIB called a useful and important forum to address issues relating to chemicals management
  • discussion of long-term climate change adaptation planning, where USCIB is seeking to inject private-sector know-how
  • launch of the Virtual Customs Business Dialogue, which will look at reducing technical and administrative barriers to trade, during China’s host year

The business group is also urging APEC’s 21 member economies to undertake new work to address localization barriers to trade, and to work toward the elimination of barriers to trade in digital services and products. The USCIB paper, which is issued annually, covers more than 20 separate issue areas. USCIB said its member companies would be closely engaged throughout China’s host year.

Robinson said the business community would push for progress on the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) when trade ministers from the 12 TPP parties meet on the sidelines of the Bali summit. “We want a strong, comprehensive TPP agreement, with no carve-outs of issues or sectors, and which includes key provisions on forced localization and dispute settlement,” he stated.

Looking at the global trading system, Robinson said business would also encourage APEC members to work together in the World Trade Organization (WTO) to open global markets to trade, especially through a potential trade facilitation agreement that will be on the table at the WTO’s own Bali ministerial in December.

 

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
+1 212.703.5043, jhuneke@uscib.org

Business Pushes for Maximum Liberalization in TPP Talks

Published on July 23, 2013

On July 23, concurrent with the 18th Round of Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) negotiations in Malaysia, USCIB co-signed a letter with 47 other business associations to U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman on U.S. priorities in the talks. The letter emphasizes the need for “further trade liberalization – at home as well as abroad” across all sectors, including the few sectors of the U.S. economy that receive significantly more protection from import competition than most other sectors. The business associations have advocated for no exclusion of specific sectors in minimizing government protections or preferences that distort the market in order to increase competition and facilitate a more adaptable economy in the face of challenging market dynamics. They wrote that maximum liberalization of protected sectors will benefit our economy, our workers and our consumers in the long-term by advancing U.S. competitiveness in the globalized economy of the 21st century.

Staff contact: Rob Mulligan

More on USCIB’s Trade and Investment Committee

USCIB Contributes Expertise as Trans-Pacific Trade Talks Move Forward

Published on September 17, 2012

tankerUSCIB staff were active on the margins of the 14th Negotiating Round of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), held September 6 to 15 in Leesburg, Virginia.  Parties to the TPP – which currently encompasses the United States, Australia, Brunei, Chile, Malaysia, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore and Vietnam – are seeking to negotiate a multilateral pact to liberalize trade and investment across the Pacific region.  At the recent APEC Summit in Vladivostok, leaders from the TPP nations issued a statement expressing confidence that their goal was within reach.

During a “stakeholders day” on September 9, Shaun Donnelly, USCIB’s vice president for investment and financial services made a presentation on “TPP’s Investment Chapter: A Strong Tool for Economic Integration, Growth, and Jobs.”  Donnelly, who co-chair of the TPP Business Coalition’s investment task force, also held informal consultations with negotiators from the United States and other parties, underscoring the importance of a strong TPP investment chapter with binding investor-state dispute settlement provisions.  Both in his formal presentation and in follow-up meetings, Donnelly further stressed industry’s strong support for disciplines to assure a level playing field when private companies compete with state-owned or state-supported enterprises.

Nasim Deylami, USCIB’s manager of customs and trade facilitation, joined executives from USCIB member companies FedEx and Levi Strauss at a meeting with the nine chief negotiators on potential public-private partnerships on capacity building for the TPP economies. Deylami made a presentation on existing trade facilitation capacity building initiatives in APEC. The meeting, led by the Center for Strategic and International Studies, also drew participation from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Grocery Manufacturers of America, and National Foreign Trade Council.

“Initial indications are that, with a lot of hard work by U.S. and other government negotiators, good progress was made in several key TPP chapters,” commented Donnelly.  “But a comprehensive TPP agreement still remains a ways off, and is not a sure thing.  USCIB and the U.S. business community continue to press our government and others for a ‘gold standard’ agreement to address the trade and investment challenges of the 21st century – one that is ambitious, comprehensive and enforceable.”

With Canada and Mexico officially joining the negotiating process in October, the TPP now grows to 11 participating countries.  The next formal negotiating round is slated for December 3-12 in Auckland, New Zealand.

Staff contacts: Rob Mulligan, Shaun Donnelly and Kristin Isabelli

More on USCIB’s Trade and Investment Committee

More on USCIB’s Customs and Trade Facilitation Committee

USCIB Welcomes Inclusion of Canada and Mexico in Pacific Trade Talks

Published on June 19, 2012
Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper and President Obama in Los Cabos, Mexico
Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper and President Obama in Los Cabos, Mexico

Los Cabos, Mexico, June 19, 2012 – The United States Council for International Business (USCIB) applauds the announcement that Canada and Mexico have been invited to join the negotiations on a Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement to open up trade and investment to drive economic growth and job creation in the Pacific region. USCIB President and CEO Peter M. Robinson issued the following statement from Los Cabos, where he attended the B20 business meetings as part of  this week’s G20 Summit:

 

“This is a very welcome development. We applaud the United States and the other countries involved in the TPP negotiations for finding a way to bring these two major economies into the TPP process without sacrificing critical objectives, including that that a TPP agreement must be ambitious and comprehensive, and it must be concluded and implemented quickly.

“With the U.S., Canadian and Mexican economies so closely integrated under NAFTA, it is important for American business, workers and consumers to have all three countries fully engaged as partners in the TPP effort. We encourage all three governments to take the opportunity to strengthen North American trade ties and address remaining barriers between us, to help build an even more open and competitive North America market.

“Trade and investment will be critical in helping the U.S. and the world grow our way to a stronger economy with more and better jobs. The developments in Los Cabos this week are an important indication that major governments in the Pacific region are committed to pursuing meaningful market-opening agreements to spur growth.”

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 information is available at www.uscib.org.

Contact:
Jonathan Huneke, VP communications, USCIB
(212) 703-5043 or jhuneke@uscib.org

More on USCIB’s Trade and Investment Committee

Business Coalition Pushes for Ambitious Trans-Pacific Partnership

Published on April 19, 2012

USCIB participated in an April 18 event on Capitol Hill event, organized by the U.S. Business Coalition for TPP, highlighting the importance of the Trans-Pacific Partnership negotiations to promote competitiveness, job creation and higher living standards across all the TPP countries.  Speakers at the event included U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk, House Rules Committee Chairman David Dreier, Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, House Ways and Means Ranking Member Sandy Levin and ambassadors or their representatives from all the TPP countries.

“The TPP negotiations are at an important crossroads,” stated Rick Johnston, co-chair of the TPP coalition and senior vice president with Citi.  “With the 12th TPP negotiating round set to begin in Dallas in less than three weeks, it is critical for all TPP countries to redouble efforts to achieve the type of comprehensive, high-standard and commercially meaningful agreement across all sectors that the Leaders of all of the TPP countries called for last November.  Only by achieving such a high-quality agreement will the benefits to our economies and our industries, workers and consumers be realized.  And such an outcome requires U.S. leadership.”

Staff contact: Rob Mulligan

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Business Pushes for Robust Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement

Published on February 28, 2012

New York, N.Y., February 28, 2012 – The United States Council for International Business (USCIB), which represents America’s leading global companies, has joined 30 other leading U.S. business associations in pressing for an ambitious and comprehensive Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement, with robust enforcement and dispute settlement provisions. The business groups made their case in a letter to President Obama in which they urged the United States to push back strongly against Australian resistance to investor-state dispute settlement mechanisms like those found in other U.S. trade agreements.

The letter pointed out that investor-state provisions are already included in thousands of trade agreements and related instruments worldwide, including many to which Australia is a party. Such provisions, the business associations said, “promote the rule of law and serve as an important backstop to ensure that investors who risk their capital, property and talent in foreign countries will be able to enforce due process, non-discrimination, basic property and related protections in a neutral, balanced and objective forum.”

USCIB co-chairs the TPP Business Coalition’s investment committee, reflecting its role as a premier voice for liberalization of both trade and investment regimes around the world.

USCIB and the other letter signatories said Australia’s intransigence regarding investor-state provisions is thwarting the ability of the TPP negotiations to develop strong enforcement rules, and is “having a corrosive effect on the level of ambition and other key aspects of the TPP negotiations.” They expressed fear that, should Australia extract such a major exemption, “other countries would press forward to seek their own major exemptions from core commitments, which would ultimately unravel the ability to achieve a comprehensive, 21st-century TPP agreement.”

The letter noted that business concerns in this area are of practical, bottom-line importance. “As data from the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Economic Analysis has shown over the past several decades, the U.S. investment overseas that strong investment rules promote brings important benefits back to the United States,” the business groups wrote.

“Firms that invest overseas are more globally competitive, export more, invest more in research and development and capital investment in the United States and pay their workers more than purely domestic companies. Promoting and assuring a level playing field for both inbound and outbound investment is therefore vital for the United States and the other TPP negotiating partners.”

About USCIB:

USCIB promotes open markets, competitiveness and innovation, sustainable development and corporate responsibility, supported by international engagement and prudent regulation. Its members include top 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 information is available at www.uscib.org.

Contact:

Jonathan Huneke, VP communications, USCIB

(212) 703-5043 or jhuneke@uscib.org

More on USCIB’s Trade and Investment Committee

USCIB Welcomes President’s Commitment to Robust TPP Agreement

Published on November 12, 2011

Honolulu, November 12, 2011–  The United States Council for International Business (USCIB) welcomed President Obama’s comments at the APEC CEO Summit in Hawaii today supporting an ambitious and comprehensive Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement and commended all TPP countries for issuing an outline to complete the negotiations in 2012.

“The president’s strong statement for a comprehensive and forward-looking 21st-century trade agreement will help maintain the momentum for completing the TPP negotiations,” stated Rob Mulligan, USCIB’s senior vice president and head of the Washington office, who is attending the APEC CEO Summit.  “The business community has been meeting with leaders from all of the TPP countries over the last few days to urge them to move forward expeditiously with a high-standard agreement that covers all sectors and products.”

Mr. Mulligan further noted: “Japan’s interest in joining the TPP talks highlights the importance of the negotiations for opening markets in the Asia-Pacific region.  If Japan is ready to take on the high-standards, comprehensive commitments that the U.S. business community is seeking in a TPP agreement, then this would be a significant addition to the negotiation.”

Mr. Mulligan said USCIB looks forward to working with U.S. leadership and its partners in the business community to ensure that the final TPP trade agreement produces new economic opportunities and exports to sustain and increase American jobs and the maximum commercial benefits of the growing Asia-Pacific market.

About USCIB
USCIB promotes open markets, competitiveness and innovation, sustainable development and corporate responsibility, supported by international engagement and prudent regulation.  Its members include top 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 information is available at www.uscib.org.

Contact:
Jonathan Huneke, USCIB
(212) 703-5043, jhuneke@uscib.org

More on USCIB’s Trade and Investment Committee

Business Urges Ambitious Approach in Pacific Trade Talks

Published on October 19, 2011

Washington, D.C., October 19, 2011 – Following Congressional approval last week of the three long-pending free trade agreements, the business community in a letter today to President Obama is urging the United States to take an ambitious approach to a possible multilateral trade agreement with several Asia-Pacific nations.

The United States Council for International Business (USCIB), which represents America’s top global companies, has joined with a range of other leading industry associations in urging the U.S. to pursue “a comprehensive agreement that covers every sector and sub-sector of the U.S. economy” in the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) negotiations currently underway with eight nations.

The business groups said such an approach would ensure that “the final TPP produces new economic opportunities and exports to sustain and increase American jobs [and] the maximum commercial benefits of the burgeoning Asia-Pacific market.”

Other parties to the TPP negotiations include Australia, Brunei, Chile, Malaysia, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore and Vietnam.  Taken together, these countries represent the third-largest U.S. export market.

“The TPP must be a gold-standard agreement for the 21st century,” stated USCIB President and CEO Peter M. Robinson.  “It needs to be ambitious and comprehensive, with high standards and all industry sectors covered, as the United States has sought to do via its bilateral trade and investment agreements.  When countries seek to carve out certain sectors for special protection, this can cause a downward spiral where the end product is a far less effective agreement than it could be.”

The joint industry letter underscored that carve-outs and exemptions would tend to undermine U.S. competitiveness, and would reduce the TPP’s economic appeal for exporters and global firms.

Mr. Robinson said the TPP talks had made important progress in establishing rules for liberalization of foreign investment, and promised to bear fruit in three areas not previously addressed via a binding multilateral trade agreement: supply-chain integration, rules for state-owned enterprises and regulatory coherence.

“Global growth, U.S. competitiveness and good American jobs rest increasingly on tackling issues beyond the scope of earlier trade agreements,” stated Mr. Robinson.  “That’s why it’s crucial that we address these in an ambitious, comprehensive manner via the TPP.”

USCIB promotes open markets, competitiveness and innovation, sustainable development and corporate responsibility, supported by international engagement and prudent regulation.  Its members include top 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 for which it serves as U.S. affiliate, USCIB provides business views to policy makers and regulatory authorities worldwide, and works to facilitate international trade and investment.  More information is available at www.uscib.org.

More on USCIB’s Trade and Investment Committee