Policy Areas Archives

UN Welcomes Business as It Plans for Global Environmental Assembly

Published on March 31, 2014
USCIB’s Norine Kennedy (third from left) with members of the U.S. delegation attending the Nairobi sessions
USCIB’s Norine Kennedy (third from left) with members of the U.S. delegation attending the Nairobi sessions

For the first time, the UN Environment Program’s Committee of Permanent Representatives (UNEP OE CPR) allowed non-governmental and business representatives to attend a preparatory meeting in Nairobi, from March 24 to 28. The meeting discussed proposed decisions for the UN Environment Assembly (UNEA) to be held in Nairobi in late June.

USCIB Vice President Norine Kennedy represented U.S. business at the week-long meeting, where she also serves as co-chair of the Stakeholder Coordinating group for UNEP. Joining Kennedy was Weru Macharia of the Kenyan Employers’ Organization. Business submissions to UNEP can be found here.

Government representatives at the UNEP session considered new international policy efforts on:

– air quality, proposed by the United States

– strengthening scientific assessments by UNEP

– chemicals and waste, and

– non-governmental stakeholder engagement.

USCIB will be preparing for the June UNEA in order to communicate member priorities and views to the U.S. and other government representatives that will attend. UNEA will lay the groundwork for environmental considerations in the UN Post 2015 Development agenda, and extend UNEP influence into scientific assessment and agenda setting for international policy.

UNEP is the recognized central UN agency for environmental issues, comprising several multilateral environmental agreements, international chemical regulatory policy, green economy and scientific assessment. At last year’s Rio+20 meeting and UN General Assembly, governments agreed to expand UNEP’s membership to include all 193 country members of the UN, and to give it primary authority for environmental policy. USCIB has had consultative standing with UNEP since 2010.

Staff contact: Norine Kennedy

 

More on USCIB’s Environment Committee

USCIB Is Gearing Up for This Year’s Big UN Nutrition Conference

Published on March 21, 2014

foodsThe Second International Conference on Nutrition (ICN2) will take place from November 19 to 21 in Rome with the participation of heads of state and government. Organized by two UN specialized agencies, the World Health Organization and the Food and Agriculture Organization, the event will address major nutrition challenges over the coming decades.

According to Helen Medina, USCIB’s senior director of product policy and innovation, the conference is expected to result in a concise, action-oriented outcome document, identifying public policy priorities at the national and global levels to address malnutrition, micronutrient deficiencies and obesity, with a view to achieving agreed global nutrition targets by 2025.

“This will be a watershed event, the first high-level intergovernmental conference on nutrition since the First International Conference on Nutrition was organized by FAO and WHO in 1992,” Medina said. “That conference resulted in a World Declaration and Plan of Action for Nutrition which called on governments to take action toward improved nutrition at the national level, and to establish institutional infrastructure to implement these plans.” She said two documents are expected to come out of the ICN2: a high-level outcome document and a more detailed framework of action for its implementation.

Fostering the private sector’s contributions to improved nutrition

Medina attended last year’s technical meeting that lay the groundwork for the conference. This year, USCIB continues its involvement in the preparations for ICN2, including by highlighting how the private sector is contributing to nutrition through the FAO online consultation on the draft outcome document. Click here to read USCIB’s comments.

In its comments, USCIB recommended that the document recognize the private sector’s contributions to improved nutrition through innovative products, scientific and technological know-how, and improved production and management practices. These can all be increasingly harnessed through effective partnerships with research institutions, farmers, policy-makers and civil society, USCIB said.

Furthermore, the private sector can play a critical role in further strengthening markets, spurring economic growth and improving livelihoods, USCIB said. The comments observed that, while private-sector involvement is critical, there is also a need for government collaboration, particularly in helping to ensure sensible policies, such as reducing barriers to trade, that do not impede the private sector’s potential contributions to the shared societal goal of improved nutrition.

Staff contact: Helen Medina

More on USCIB’s Health Care Working Group

More on USCIB’s Food and Agriculture Working Group

USCIB Notes Importance of NTIA Announcement on Internet

Published on March 20, 2014

U.S. agency intends to transition certain Internet domain name functions while preserving system’s security, stability and resiliency

 

4693_image001New York, N.Y., March 20, 2014 – The United States Council for International Business (USCIB) acknowledged the importance of the March 14 announcement by the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) that it intends to transition key Internet domain name functions.

“We welcome the opportunity to actively participate in the multi-stakeholder dialogue that ICANN and the Internet community will convene to develop productive responses that meet NTIA’s criteria,“ said USCIB President and CEO Peter M. Robinson.

“We especially applaud NTIA’s resolve to ‘maintain the security, stability, and resiliency of the Internet Domain Name System’ and not to ‘accept a proposal that replaces the NTIA role with a government-led or an inter-governmental organization solution.’”

Robinson said USCIB has been a stalwart supporter of the multi-stakeholder model for Internet governance. “We believe the consultative input of business, government, the technical community and civil society is imperative to ensure that the Internet remains an open, safe and secure platform for innovation, creativity, job creation and economic growth throughout the world,” he said.

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

More on USCIB’s Information, Communications and Technology Committee

ICC Calls for Safeguards to Prevent Misplaced Digital Advertisements

Published on March 20, 2014

4695_image001In a statement issued earlier this month, the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) has called for companies across the digital advertising ecosystem to work together to develop safeguards against advertisement placements that support illegal activity or harm brand reputation.

ICC is calling for industry cooperation on the development of a self-regulatory mechanism that reduces the likelihood of advertisements being placed on sites dedicated to either engaging in or facilitating illegal activity or around content that an advertiser deems to be harmful.

“There is consensus among everyone in the ecosystem that advertising should not support illegal activity,” said Brent Sanders, chair of the ICC Commission on Marketing and Advertising and associate general counsel for Microsoft Corporation. “This statement acknowledges the importance of a collective solution and encourages cooperation to set up effective, feasible self-regulatory solutions.” Sanders also chairs USCIB’s Marketing and Advertising Committee.

“In addition to problems of undermining brand reputation and funding illegal sites, advert misplacements can also lead consumers to mistakenly believe that a site is legitimate,” said David Fares, chair of the working group that developed the statement and senior vice president, government relations, 21st Century Fox. “ICC members want to help raise awareness of this issue and encourage development of effective mechanisms to address it. Some markets have started already and we encourage further developments of this kind.”

ICC recommends that an appropriate self-regulatory system to address misplaced advertising should include:

  • using commercially reasonable efforts and measures to reduce the risk of advertisements being placed on sites dedicated to either engaging in or facilitating illegal activity, or on sites that the brand identifies as undesirable for its products/services; and
  • developing commercially reasonable policies and processes for removing or excluding sites dedicated to either engaging in or facilitating illegal activity from their marketing campaigns and/or services, and the development of an industry-wide standard for expeditiously terminating such non-compliant advertisement placements.

ICC has been a major rules-setter in international advertising self-regulation since 1937, when the ICC Commission on Marketing and Advertising issued the first code on advertising. Today, ICC principles serve as the gold standard for most national and industry self-regulation.

For more information download the ICC policy statement on safeguarding against misplacement of digital advertising.

 

Staff contact: Jonathan Huneke

More on USCIB’s Marketing and Advertising Committee

Gender Equality: A To-Do List for Employers and Governments

Published on March 20, 2014
USCIB’s Ronnie Goldberg presented the views of global employers on gender equality at the UN Commission on the Status of Women.
USCIB’s Ronnie Goldberg presented the views of global employers on gender equality at the UN Commission on the Status of Women.

USCIB Senior Advisor Ronnie Goldberg, who serves as the North American regional vice president of the International Organization of Employers (IOE), took part in a March 12 panel discussion of equal pay at the 58th Session of the UN Commission on the Status of Women in New York.

The panel, organized by the International Labor Organization and the government of Finland, facilitated the sharing of experiences and challenges, across countries and regions, of promoting equal pay for women and men, and informed the discussions during the session of the Commission on the Status of Women.

Articulating the global voice of employers, Goldberg stated: “Employers support, not just the human rights case, but the compelling business and economic case for unleashing women’s skills and talents and empowering them to enjoy equal access to job opportunities and career development.”

In her remarks, Goldberg presented a menu of recommendations to enhance efforts by companies and governments to support and promote women’s advancement and gender equality in the workplace.

The toolkit of best practices presented for companies included measures and policies around the following themes:

  • Top management leadership and commitment to gender equality
  • Making gender core to the business strategy, which requires measurement and accountability
  • Providing an enabling framework through human resource and operational policies, including opportunities for flexible schedules and part-time work.
  • Providing a robust and relevant support system for women executives through education and training
  • Changing mind-sets and corporate culture
  • Addressing the broader social context.

At the same time, Goldberg underlined that businesses looked to governments to adopt the following general approaches:

  • Recognize gender equality as a key lever in economic development and competitiveness
  • Champion for women’s economic empowerment with government officials at the highest level
  • Act as positive role models, promoting ambitious gender diversity targets for their own administrations as well as the state enterprises under their control
  • Engage in dialogue with business.

Goldberg called for governments and the business community to work together to come up with data- and fact-based strategies with realistic goals, and urged the OECD, ILO, other international organizations and the international financial institutions to continue to work together to come up with data- and fact-based strategies with realistic goals. She further urged these bodies to continue to work collaboratively to raise awareness of the economic dividend of gender equality.

Staff contact: Ronnie Goldberg

 

More on USCIB’s Labor and Employment Committee

EU Proposes SelfCertification on Conflict Minerals

Published on March 18, 2014

Gold Rush Fuels DR Congo CrisisEarlier this month, in a welcome contrast to a needlessly stringent U.S. approach to conflict minerals from Central Africa, the European Commission put forward a draft regulation to set up a system of supply chain due diligence self-certification of importers of minerals to the EU. The regulation would encourage industry self-certification of responsible imports of tin, tantalum, tungsten and gold from conflict-affected and high-risk areas.

The proposal is based on the OECD’s Due Diligence Guidance for Responsible Supply Chains of Minerals from Conflict-Affected and High-Risk Areas, the credible international corporate due diligence benchmark. The EU self-certification system calls for the adherence to the five steps of the OECD due diligence guidance through monitoring and overseeing of purchases.

USCIB has played a key role coordinating business contributions to the OECD due diligence guidance, and we have advocated for the EU regulation on conflict minerals, working actively with BIAC, the Business and Industry Advisory Committee to the OECD to encourage responsible sourcing and to offset the disincentives created by Section 1502 of the U.S. Dodd-Frank law, which many observers believe encourages a de facto embargo of minerals exports from the Democratic Republic of Congo and other affected regions.

The OECD due diligence guidance was developed in line with the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, both of which aim to advance supply chain due diligence practices and avoid the inadvertent consequences of Dodd-Frank.

 

Staff contact: Ronnie Goldberg

More on USCIB’s Corporate Responsibility Committee

USCIB Weighs in on the Effect of TTIP on the Global Fashion Industry

Published on March 18, 2014
L-R: Arthur Bodek (Grunfeld, Desiderio), Justine Badimon (USCIB), Maristella Iacobello (PVH Corp.), Steve Lamar (American Apparel & Footwear Association)
L-R: Arthur Bodek (Grunfeld, Desiderio), Justine Badimon (USCIB), Maristella Iacobello (PVH Corp.), Steve Lamar (American Apparel & Footwear Association)

Justine Badimon, USCIB’s director of regional initiatives, spoke to students, faculty and stakeholders at the Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT) on March 13 regarding the current status and backdrop of the Transatlantic Trade Investment Partnership (TTIP).

A TTIP agreement is anticipated to be a comprehensive high-standard trade and investment agreement between the U.S. and the EU that will support U.S. jobs and international competitiveness.

“Regulatory differences will be a major stumbling block for the negotiations, but USCIB anticipates seeing improved regulatory cooperation in a successful outcome,” Badimon said. She discussed the negotiators’ uncertain timeline for a conclusion of the agreement, indicating that European parliamentary elections in May and a new European Commission taking office in November will likely draw out the talks.

Badimon sat on a panel of industry experts, discussing the effects of TTIP on the global fashion industry through the scope of international business. The panel was co-sponsored by the European American Chamber of Commerce and FIT’s Department of International Trade and Marketing. Other speakers included experts from the American Apparel & Footwear Association, PVH Corp. and Grunfeld, Desiderio Lebowitz Silverman & Klestadt LLP.

The timely event coincided with the fourth round of U.S.-EU trade talks in Brussels from March 10-14, where TTIP negotiators continued deliberations on market access, regulation and rules, with a focus on benefits for small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). During the presentations, panelists gave an overview of the challenges facing negotiations, especially those affecting the fashion industry such as convergence on regulation of labeling, rules of origin, chemical management and product safety standards.

 

Staff contact: Justine Badimon

More on USCIB’s European Union Committee

More on USCIB’s Trade and Investment Committee

Global Business and Disability Network

Published on March 14, 2014

4690_image001According to the International Labor Organization (ILO), more than a billion people worldwide experience some form of disability. Many companies are learning the strategic advantage of a diverse workforce that is inclusive of disabled people.

The ILO Global Business and Disability Network is 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.

Many countries have laws and policies related to non-discrimination and employment of disabled persons. ILO standards, disability experience and global reach can assist companies as they seek to initiate or improve practices related to disability in the workplace.

The network works with the ILO and through it, other UN agencies, governmental, non-governmental, disabled peoples, educational, and private voluntary organizations and the business community to share knowledge and information and engage in activities of mutual benefit related to disability and business.

USCIB is a member of the network, and USCIB Senior Counsel Ronnie Goldberg serves on its steering committee.

 

Staff contact: Ronnie Goldberg

More on USCIB’s Labor and Employment Committee

New ICC Framework Clarified Do’s and Dont’s for Responsible Alcohol Marketing

Published on March 13, 2014

4689_image002A new global resource has been published by the ICC Commission on Marketing and Advertising to help strengthen self-regulation for marketing alcohol. By clarifying how existing global principles should be applied in practice, the ICC Framework for Responsible Marketing Communications of Alcohol offers companies and advertising self-regulatory bodies a guide for bolstering responsible practice across markets. It will also serve as the basis for developing self-regulatory rules for marketing alcohol where these do not exist.

The ICC framework was developed by the body of global experts responsible for developing and updating the Consolidated ICC Code of Advertising and Marketing Communications Practice, which serves as the gold standard for most national and industry-wide self-regulation.

“The framework takes principles, such as social responsibility, and spells out what it means when developing or assessing an alcohol marketing communication,” said Oliver Gray, executive director of the European Advertising Standards Alliance and co-chair of ICC’s Code Revision Task Force, which drafted the framework.

“So whether you are marketing beer in Japan, wine in Argentina or spirits in the U.S., promoting your product as a means for social success, performance in sport or attractiveness to the opposite sex is not an acceptable practice,” he said. “And for self-regulatory organizations reviewing advertisements to enforce those principles, this extra clarity will be invaluable.”

According to Jonathan Huneke, USCIB’s vice president for communications and public affairs, who staffs USCIB’s Marketing and Advertising Committee, the drafters worked in close consultation with the alcohol industry, including in the United States. “We wanted to make sure that the framework could help companies meet their commitments to strengthening self-regulation, but without disrupting existing codes.”

“We have been strongly supportive of this effort,” said Brett Bivans, senior vice president of the International Center for Alcohol Policies. “This is a significant step in strengthening and clarifying high standards of responsible marketing, and we will work closely with ICC and other partners as the framework is implemented.”

ICC has served as the authoritative rule-setter for international advertising since the 1930s, when the first ICC code on advertising practice was issued. Since then, it has updated and expanded the ICC self-regulatory framework where needed to assist companies in marketing their products responsibly and to help self-regulators apply the rules consistently.

 

Staff contacts: Jonathan Huneke

More on USCIB’s Marketing and Advertising Committee

USCIB 2014 Policy Agenda

Published on March 6, 2014

USCIB has officially released our 2014 Policy Advocacy Priorities, outlining our commitments to representing members in a broad range of policy areas and in a wide array of international organizations. USCIB’s policy priorities fall into four cutting-edge categories: growth, jobs and open markets; competitiveness and innovation; business and society; and sustainable development and resource management.

Rob Mulligan, USCIB senior vice president of policy and government affairs, explained that USCIB’s focus is on creating and maintaining a global business climate that considers today’s economic realities. “We strive to promote policies that strengthen our members’ access to global value chains, that take advantage of emerging technologies and new markets, and that reflect business’ responsibility to human rights and the environment,” he said.

Mulligan added: “We are pleased that our policy priorities are in line with the President’s newly-released U.S. trade agenda and the priorities of our affiliate organizations, like the International Chamber of Commerce.”

USCIB is eager to see progress both at home, on issues like Trade Promotion Authority, and abroad, in initiatives such as the UN Post-2015 Sustainable Development Goals and the OECD’s Base-Erosion and Profit-Shifting tax project. Members of USCIB’s policy staff are excited to build momentum in these and other areas, in order to maintain American business leadership in the global economy.

Staff Contact: Rob Mulligan