Policy Areas Archives

Jørgen Rønnest Elected Employers Vice Chairperson of the ILO Governing Body

Published on June 17, 2014

The International Organization of Employers announced on Monday that Vice President of the ILO Jørgen Rønnest of Denmark was elected employers’ vice chairperson of the ILO Governing Body. USCIB is the American Affiliate of the International Organization of Employers.

Rønnest worked for over a decade in the Danish Ministry of Finance as an economist and expert on the European Union. His international career includes three years as financial attaché to the Danish Embassy in Washington, D.C.

Following six years as chief economist at Danske Bank, Rønnest served as director for international affairs at the Confederation of Danish Employers. He has sat at the IOE Management Board as the voice of Nordic Employers for four years.

“I am honored and delighted to be assuming the important role of leading the representation of business and employers in the ILO,” Rønnest said at his election on June 13. “The Employers’ Group has contributed significantly in recent years to reforming the organization to meet the expectations of the constituents and the challenges of the future. I look forward to continuing this work in the run up to the ILO’s centenary and would like to thank the group for the confidence they have placed in me.”

IOE Secretary General Brent Wilton added: “The global employer community is privileged to have Jørgen, with his breadth of knowledge and experience, as their principal interlocutor in the ILO he enjoys their unanimous support.”

USCIB’s Ronnie Goldberg was recently re-elected to the ILO’s Governing Body and serves as an IOE regional vice president.

Staff contact: Ronnie Goldberg

More on USCIB’s Labor & Employment Committee

Business Coalition Action on WTO Trade Facilitation Agreement

Published on June 13, 2014

Reports

ContatinersThe proposed World Trade Organization (WTO) Agreement on Trade Facilitation holds the potential to significantly bring down transaction costs borne by business and consumers.

WTO members recently reached a consensus on the agreement at the Bali Ministerial Conference in December 2013. If the agreement finally passes after almost a decade of negotiations, it could increase global GDP by over $1 trillion.

Kristin Isabelli,USCIB’s director of customs policy, attended an ICC Trade Facilitation and Customs Commission meeting in Paris from June 12 to 13, where she showcased the work of the Global Trade Facilitation Agreement Coalition – a partnership between USCIB, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the National Foreign Trade Council and the Express Association of America – in helping to move the agreement forward. Isabelli also serves as ICC’s representative to the World Customs Organization’s Harmonized System Committee.

The international business community, represented by the Global Trade Facilitation Agreement Coalition, has much to gain from the WTO trade agreement. The agreement is estimated to cut the cost of trade by 10 percent in developed countries and by 15 percent in developing countries.  It will also create new jobs and slash red tape at the border. The coalition came together to organize private sector interests and to develop a strategic action plan to optimize the agreement’s implementation.

Isabelli noted that the coalition seeks to work closely with the International Chamber Commerce (ICC), the WTO and the World Customs Organization and stressed the importance of working with different countries’ local business communities.

“The agreement is going to be a heavy lift,” said Isabelli. “We want our coalition to be a global initiative.”

The coalition aims to be inclusive within the business community and plans to coordinate among the private sector and among the WTO member governments. Given that the agreement’s implementation will take a long time, Isabelli described the process as a “marathon versus a sprint,” and that business needs to be prepared to put its energies into the agreement for the long term.

“We are working very closely with our own government, and they are thrilled that we are setting up this coalition,” Isabelli said of the U.S. government. “They want to work closely with us.”

Staff contact: Kristin Isabelli

 

More on USCIB’s Customs and Trade Facilitation Committee

WSIS Success Despite Controversy Over Freedom of Speech

Published on June 12, 2014

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4756_image003Government officials, business leaders and members of civil society and the technical community assembled in Geneva from June 10 to 13 for the stock-taking meeting of the World Summit of the Information Society (WSIS) to review decade-long progress on promoting the use of Information and Communications Technologies (ICTs) as engines of economic and social development.

USCIB’s Barbara Wanner, vice president of ICT policy, attended the event as a representative of private-sector interests in WSIS’s efforts to maintain a multistakeholder model for Internet governance and to bridge the digital divide between developed and developing countries.

“The WSIS review process provides a unique opportunity to share and evaluate local and national initiatives that advance the Information Society, putting in place actions to improve and replicate those initiatives,” explained Jean-Guy Carrier, secretary general of the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC). “It offers a valuable forum for reviewing progress made across the past decade in implementing outcomes from those initial meetings in Geneva and Tunis.”

Coordinated by the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) and co-organized by UNESCO, UNCTAD and UNDP, the summit convened high-ranking officials who endorsed a proposal that presents a vision of bridging the digital divide by unleashing ICTs as engines of development. Hamadoun Toure, secretary general of ITU, said the proposal was developed in an open process than involved the participation of all stakeholder groups, including business.

A recurring theme throughout the discussions was that a multistakeholder model is the best way to address Internet governance. Daniel Sepulveda, deputy assistant secretary of state for international communications and information policy, captured this sentiment in his remarks: “No one country, no one institution, no one stakeholder can succeed alone. We will have to fulfill the WSIS goals together, acknowledging our success to date and overcoming remaining challenges together.”

Controversy Over Freedom of Speech

Participants hit an impasse regarding an important element of the WSIS document that addressed the role of ICTs in promoting freedom of the press.  A coalition led by the UK, which included the United States, Sweden, ICC-BASIS (Business Action to Support the Information Society), Cisco and Microsoft, promoted language that affirmed that: (1) the principles of freedom of expression and the free flow of information, ideas, and knowledge are essential for the knowledge society and economic development; (2) the same rights that people have offline must also be protected online, including the right to privacy; and (3) the safety of all journalists, media workers, bloggers and their sources must be assured.

Iran, Cuba and Saudi Arabia strongly opposed this language, leading to an impasse. But in an eleventh-hour effort to salvage a consensus on the document, UNESCO offered a compromise: the UNESCO proposal eliminated language extending protections to bloggers and sources, but continued to ground the right of freedom of expression in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

In spite of this and other disagreements, and thanks to appeals made by Toure and Multistakeholder Preparatory Platform (MPP) Chair Vladimir Minkin, all participants eventually endorsed the WSIS post-2015 Vision Statement, which incorporated the UNESCO compromise. The final outcome reflects a consensus among stakeholders throughout the world on the importance of the WSIS Action Lines in catalyzing economic development through ICT, according to Wanner.

Nevertheless, some WSIS participants remain concerned that certain countries may seize on the disagreements that emerged during the MPP process and the eleventh-hour manner in which the final agreement was reached as demonstrating the limits of the multistakeholder model. It is possible these critics will further argue that such discord warrants greater governmental oversight of Internet governance.

“It will be ever-more important to continue to actively engage in initiatives and outreach aimed at building bridges with developing countries that fortify support for the multistakeholder model of Internet governance,” Wanner said.

USCIB Helps Shape Course of Internet Stewardship Transition

USCIB’s comments have been cited in a document released by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) regarding the transition of Internet stewardship from the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) to the global mulitstakeholder community.

USCIB’s comments appear to have helped shape the decision to expand representation of business and other stakeholder groups in the IANA Transition Coordination Committee, according to Barbara Wanner, vice president of ICT policy.

ICC-BASIS (International Chamber of Commerce – Business Action to Support the Information Society) was assigned a seat on the coordination committee to serve as a representative of the larger business community.

Read ICANN’s “Process to Develop Proposal and Next Steps.”

 

Staff contact: Barbara Wanner

More on USCIB’s Information and Communications Technology Committee

Calls for Education Reform at IOE Leaders Summit

Published on June 11, 2014
Peter Robinson (USCIB)
Peter Robinson (USCIB)

The International Organization of Employers (IOE) Leaders’ Summit wrapped up on Tuesday in Geneva, featuring business organization leaders from around the world who addressed key barriers to business sustainability. The summit took place during the International Labor Organization (ILO) Conference, which focused on closing the workforce skills gap and reforming the labor market. USCIB is the U.S. affiliate of the IOE.

Three panel discussions were chaired by new IOE President Daniel Funes de Rioja and moderated by Blaise Matthey, secretary general of the Business Federation of Western Switzerland.

“Our educational system needs to catch up with the advances we’ve made in technology”

USCIB President and CEO Peter Robinson delivered remarks during the first panel, titled “Predicting the Unpredictable: Skills for the 21st Century.”

Robinson outlined some of the challenges employers and workers face as a result of rapidly developing technologies – such as the possibility of machines displacing human workers – and made the case for education reforms that will equip the workforce with the skills necessary to thrive in the digital economy.

In order to address the challenges posed by new technologies, Robinson argued that the education system must instill future employees with the character traits necessary to succeed in the new economy: curiosity, enthusiasm, a strategic mindset and the ability to construct systems that leverage vast computational power. Old teaching methods, such as rote memorization and test-taking, will not be as valuable.

Robinson also called for an improved connection between school-based learning and work-based training, with more sensible and coherent apprenticeship and internship programs, and made the case for lifelong learning rather than the front-end-loading of education. Companies must also develop training programs that prepare workers for both current and future jobs.

“We also need governments and the private sector to work together to provide the kind of robust infrastructure needed to access the transformational power of the Internet and other technologies.” Robinson said, and cited the Colombian government’s recent efforts to upgrade citizens’ access to Internet through a broadband rollout program as a good model.

“We need to prepare ourselves as best we can, working together to help determine what people need to learn for the 21st-century workplace. And we need to get started right now,” Robinson concluded.

Read Robinson’s full remarks.

Staff contacts: Ronnie Goldberg
and Ariel Meyerstein

More on USCIB’s Labor & Employment Committee

USCIB Supports Ratification of Disability Treaty

Published on June 10, 2014

4752_image001New York, N.Y., June 10, 2014 – The United States Council for International Business (USCIB), which represents America’s top global companies, has urged Congress to ratify the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), an international disability treaty that was inspired by U.S. leadership in recognizing the rights of people with disabilities.

The CRDP was modeled after the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), and provides a vital framework for creating global policies that embrace the rights of people with disabilities. Ratification of the CPRD allows the U.S. to maintain its leadership role and eliminate disability discrimination around the world.

USCIB signed on with over 800 disability, business and faith organizations that voiced support for the treaty. In a letter addressed to Senate leaders, USCIB President and CEO Peter M. Robinson urged Congress to move expeditiously to ratify the treaty, and underscored how the CRPD strengthens American leadership and benefits business.

“U.S. business has long recognized that policies promoting diversity and non-discrimination in the workplace are important for protecting human rights as well as for purely business reasons,” said Robinson. “Workplace diversity conveys important economic advantages on both companies and the societies in which they do business, including broader talent pools, improved productivity, increased job creation and opening new markets.”

USCIB is a member of the ILO Global Business and Disability Network, a voluntary group of multinational companies, employers’ organizations, business networks and disabled persons’ organizations who share the conviction that people with disabilities have talents and skills that can enhance virtually any workplace. USCIB Senior Counsel Ronnie Goldberg serves on the network’s steering committee.

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 Labor & Employment Committee

USCIB Represents American Employers at ILO Conference

Published on June 9, 2014

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peopleUSCIB represented American employers at the 103rd Session of the International Labor Conference in Geneva from May 28 to June 12. The International Labor Conference is the highest decision-making body of the International Labor Organization (ILO), which brings together government delegates from the organization’s 185 member states, representatives from workers’ organizations and employers’ organizations such as the International Organization of Employers (IOE). USCIB is the American affiliate of the IOE.

USCIB’s Senior Council Ronnie Goldberg and Vice President of Labor Affairs, Corporate Responsibility and Governance Ariel Meyerstein were among those representing U.S. employers at the ILO Conference.

“Historic Opportunity for the Global Business Community to Put Its Stamp on Human Rights”

On June 9, the ILO Forced Labor Committee successfully completed a new recommendation and protocol, which will supplement the 1930 Forced Labor Convention. The new protocol will address gaps on human trafficking.

Speaking on Wednesday during the Forced Labor Committee discussions, Employer Spokesperson Ed Potter (Coca-Cola) told attendees that the committee’s work is a “historic opportunity for the business community to put its stamp on human rights.”

Read Potter’s statement.

Goldberg Re-elected to ILO GB with Highest Number of Votes Among Standing Candidates

At the ILO Conference, USCIB’s Goldberg represented the IOE Management Board and stood for re-election to the Governing Body of the ILO and reappointment as an IOE regional vice president. She also participated in the International Labor Conference Committee on Employment, which focused on setting ILO employment priorities. Goldberg was re-elected to the governing body with the highest number of votes among all candidates standing. A full list of recently elected ILO Governing Body members can be found on the IOE website. They will serve from 2014 to 2017.

ILO Workers’ Representatives Block Conclusions in the Committee on Application of Standards

In a disappointing move over the weekend, the Workers’ Group announced it would block draft conclusions in the Committee on the Application of Standards. It blocked proceedings because the Workers’ Group refused to accept any language that indicates disagreement over including the right to strike in this convention.

The IOE website reports: “Employers find it very difficult to understand why the Workers refuse to have acknowledged in the conclusions perfectly legitimate differing points of view – a normal practice in any tripartite discussion.”

ILO Director General Guy Ryder Gives “Honest Appraisal” of Employers’ Group Reform

At a June 4 meeting of the ILO Employers’ Group, Guy Ryder, the director general of the ILO, announced he would deliver an “honest appraisal” of the ILO reform to the group. He noted positive developments, with the ILO “beginning to work in new, different and better ways.” He also acknowledged Employers’ Group’s role in bringing beneficial reform to the ILO Governing Body.

– Read more on the IOE website

USCIB Weighs In on Transition to Formal Economy

During the ILO Conference, USCIB’s Meyerstein participated in the Committee on the Transition from the Informal to the Formal Economy. The committee serves as a two-year standard setting process that will lead to a recommendation from the ILO to member states on how to manage this transition, which affects a huge proportion of the global economy in both developed and developing countries.

In consultation with a global group of national employer representatives, USCIB is advocating for a general framework that recognizes the diversity of national experiences and recommends gradual and progressive transition strategies that are built upon establishing legal relationships between employers, employees and the state.  Establishing these legal relationships is the necessary precursor to expanding national capacity to implement and enforce ILO labor standards and social protections.

Meyerstein noted that transition strategies should remove barriers to entry into the formal economy presented by over-burdensome regulatory frameworks, present appropriate support and incentives to make transition easy for enterprises and continue to provide them an enabling environment for sustainable growth.

Staff contacts: Ronnie Goldberg and Ariel Meyerstein

More on USCIB’s Labor & Employment Committee

Business Priorities on Trade Presented at OECD

Published on June 6, 2014

On May 26, the Business and Industry Advisory Council to the OECD (BIAC) held its bi-annual trade committee meeting in Paris, where 15 participants from a wide range of countries contributed to shaping BIAC’s strategic directions on trade. USCIB’s Senior Vice President for Policy and Government Affairs, Rob Mulligan, attended the meeting; USCIB is the U.S. affiliate of BIAC. The meeting was followed by a strong BIAC delegation participating in a series of OECD Trade Committee meetings on May 27-28.

Members to the committee discussed next steps for the recently released Business Priorities on Trade paper, and had an opportunity to present their work and views to the OECD Trade Committee. Among others, the Business Priorities on Trade paper provides recommendations to OECD on trade in services, global value chains, localization barriers to trade, and the movement of business persons. BIAC will work closely with its members and OECD to explore these issues further throughout the 2014 and 2015.

Read more about BIAC’s activities on the BIAC Monthly News Bulletin.

Staff contact: Rob Mulligan

 

More on USCIB’s Trade and Investment Committee

USCIBs Kennedy in Germany for UN Climate Talks

Published on June 6, 2014

4750_image001Ahead of a planned global climate agreement in Paris next year, government negotiators have assembled in Bonn, Germany from June 4 to 14 for the next round of UN climate talks. These June sessions of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) focused on “raising ambition in areas of urbanization and land use.”

Negotiators have been tasked with designing the 2015 agreement and finding ways to raise ambition to address climate change before 2020.

USCIB’s Norine Kennedy, vice president for strategic international engagement, energy and environment attended the Bonn climate talks and spoke on behalf of business and industry groups.

“We want to work with you so we can achieve a deal that involves all countries, motivates all actors, and delivers economic and environmental benefits to all,” Kennedy told government officials at the meeting.

She stressed that governments will benefit from listening to what business considers priority elements that should be reflected in the 2015 climate agreement. Kennedy noted that the agreement should work with markets on issues such as carbon pricing, and she urged governments to build flexibility into the treaty so that states can adjust to future scientific, technological and economic innovations. Due to limited resources, Kennedy said the final agreement should promote cost-effective, market-based actions.

“The UNFCCC’s attention to non-state actors, such as business, has opened a promising area of cooperation and further work to supplement and amplify government efforts,” Kennedy noted.

Progress Report

Kennedy reports that the talks on a new UN post-2020 agreement have reached the halfway point, after meetings on June 8 concluded with an impasse.  While governments have committed to agree to “elements of a text” at the next Conference of Parties in December in Lima, they cannot reach any consensus on their starting point text for discussion.  The new agreement will include sections on mitigation (greenhouse gas reduction commitments), adaptation to climate change impacts, technology and finance for developing countries, transparency and reporting, and “nationally determined contributions (NDCs).”

NDCs are a U.S. proposal backed by most countries to allow each country, whether developed or developing, to set out its pledges for action.  This is a departure from the previous Kyoto Protocol approach, which was built on “top-down” targets.  Business representatives in Bonn are seeking to better understand where the private sector would weigh in during the national and international stages of this pledge and review oriented approach.

The first half of the week was dedicated to ministerial discussions and a full-court charm offensive by the incoming president of the UNFCCC negotiations, the Peruvian Environment Minister, Manuel Pulgar Vidal.   Preparations for the Lima COP have gotten off to a slow start, with construction of the conference venue delayed.  This raises the possibility that the number of government and non-governmental representatives allowed to attend will be quite limited.  Lima is expected to indicate whether governments can agree on the form of targets and funding commitments and thereby to be on track to reach the final agreement in Paris in 2015.

USCIB has met with members of the Inter-Governmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and with the “Umbrella Group” (a coalition of countries including the U.S., Canada, Norway, Israel, New Zealand, Australia, Japan, Russia) to discuss information needs from business for the NDCs, the future of carbon markets and the Clean Development Mechanism, and the role of business in the new climate treaty to be finalized in Paris. USCIB is working with the Major Economies Business Forum (BizMEF) and the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) which serves as the official business focal point for the UNFCCC.

“So at the half-way point, the process is facing some major hurdles,” said Kennedy. “However, delegations are feeling the pressure of expectations on them to reach an outcome in Paris that will pass muster with domestic stakeholders, so failure is not an option.”

Read Kennedy’s full remarks.

Follow Kennedy on Twitter @USCIBKennedy

Staff contact: Norine Kennedy

 

More on USCIB’s Environment Committee

Governments Practitioners and Business Review OECD G20 Push to Rewrite Global Tax Rules

Published on June 4, 2014
IRS Commissioner John Koskinen addressing the conference
IRS Commissioner John Koskinen addressing the conference

Washington, D.C., June 4, 2014 – With governments from the G20 and other advanced economies moving forward in an effort to rewrite global corporate tax rules, officials from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) joined national policy makers, business executives and other tax experts to review progress and plot a realistic path  forward.

The 2014 OECD International Tax Conference, which wrapped up yesterday in Washington, D.C., provided timely insight into the OECD’s work on “base erosion and profit shifting” (BEPS), under which governments are seeking to curtail what they perceive as growing under-taxation or non-taxation of international corporate income.

The two-day conference was organized by the United States Council for International Business (USCIB) in cooperation with the OECD and the Business and Industry Advisory Committee (BIAC) to the OECD, which officially represents the view of industry in the Paris-based body, and for which USCIB serves as the U.S. member federation. It was the ninth in an increasingly popular annual series of such events held in Washington, D.C. Details are available at www.uscibtax.org.

A year after G20 leaders endorsed a 15-point action plan put forward by the OECD to draw up new global tax rules to counter base erosion and profit shifting, the first group of projects is heading towards completion. This includes work on intangibles, country-by-country reporting, tax treaty abuse, hybrids and the digital economy. The conference provided an opportunity to assess progress to date and look forward to the work that will occupy the OECD over the next year.

Pascal Saint-Amans, director of the OECD Center for Tax Policy and Administration, said that OECD was consulting closely and extensively with all countries and stakeholders involved in order to reduce uncertainties. “With the OECD’s member countries, G20 countries and stakeholders, we share the goal of limiting uncertainty in tax systems,” he said. “In the long run, the best way to make sure that global businesses can operate smoothly, taxed appropriately and not more than once, is for countries to work together rather than take uncoordinated, unilateral actions. That’s what we’re working at the OECD to facilitate, and we are fortunate to have so many interested and invested partners as part of this conversation.”

According to Bill Sample, corporate vice president for worldwide taxes with Microsoft and chair of USCIB’s Taxation Committee, the conference underscored the importance and complexity of the debate around BEPS and global tax policies, and the OECD’s centrality in it. “The OECD process gathers the most important government officials, and benefits from strong business participation,” he said. “While there have been differences of opinion, it is clear that the OECD offers the best forum for such discussions.”

Will Morris, director of global tax policy with GE International and chair of the BIAC Committee on Taxation and Fiscal Affairs, said: “There is a danger to the OECD’s central mission of promoting cross-border trade and investment if the focus of the BEPS project becomes solely about anti-abuse, rather than about improving the international tax system. Furthermore, unilateral action by states is a real risk. It’s in the interest of business to have as broad an agreement as possible, for the sake of certainty.”

Carol Doran Klein, USCIB’s vice president and international tax counsel, who serves as vice chair of the BIAC Tax Committee, said tight deadlines had made input difficult. “Events like this provide a good opportunity for OECD governments and secretariat officials to hear from the business community,” she said. “And we need to ensure that the private sector can contribute meaningfully to the detailed technical work being done across a range of areas.”

IRS Commissioner John Koskinen, the conference keynote speaker, focused his remarks on evolving cross-border regulatory compliance under the U.S. Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA). “Although the policy issues have been settled and tax transparency is the common goal, tax administrators still must answer the question of how we make automated information work well as a practical matter,” he said.

On BEPS, Koskinen warned against the development of an overly complex country-by-country reporting system. “My hope would be that policy and legal determinations not be made without thoroughly considering the practical implications of these decisions, not only for businesses, but for tax administrations,” he stated.

Other speaker at this year’s conference included:

  • Mike Williams of Her Majesty’s Treasury in the UK, vice chair of the OECD Committee on Fiscal Affairs
  • Tizhong Liao, China’s director general of international taxation
  • Robert Stack, deputy assistant secretary for international tax affairs, U.S. Treasury
  • Eduoard Marcus, deputy director of international and European affairs, French Ministry of Finance
  • Martin Kreienbaum, director general of international taxation, German finance ministry
  • Armando Lara Yaffar, director general, Mexican finance ministry.

They were joined by other OECD experts on transfer pricing, international tax cooperation and related matters, tax officials from the U.S. and other OECD governments, and business experts from USCIB and BIAC’s global membership.

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 BIAC, 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
+1 212.703.5043 or jhuneke@uscib.org

Conference agenda and other information

View conference photos (flickr)

More on USCIB’s Taxation Committee