USCIB Applauds House Passage of Russia Trade Bill

Published on November 16, 2012

New York, N.Y., November 16, 2012 – The United States Council for International Business (USCIB) welcomed the House of Representatives’ passage today of legislation to establish permanent normal trade relations (PNTR) with Russia.

“This is a long-overdue step to secure U.S. access to the growing Russian marketplace,” said USCIB President and CEO Peter M. Robinson. “Russia joined the World Trade Organization in August, and in the intervening time, U.S. companies have been at a competitive disadvantage as the country opens up new opportunities for foreign trade and investment. We urge the Senate to swiftly approve PNTR legislation.”

Passage of PNTR is required to lift trade restrictions on Russia under the 1970s-era Jackson-Vanik amendment, which has been deemed to violate WTO rules.

Robinson noted that Russia is also taking steps to join the 34-nation Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), which would entail additional steps to open Russia to foreign trade and investment. Through its membership in BIAC, the Business and Industry Advisory Committee to the OECD, USCIB is working to advise the OECD and its member governments on appropriate terms for Russian entry into the organization, and is assessing the potential impact for U.S. business.

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.

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USCIB Convenes China Business and Legal Forum

Published on November 14, 2012

The Washington, D.C. forum brought together Chinese and American business leaders and government officials.

Yesterday in Washington, D.C., USCIB partnered with the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade (CCPIT) and the U.S.-China Legal Exchange Foundation to host a Business and Legal Forum on U.S.-China Trade and Investment at the Cosmos Club. A large Chinese delegation, headed by CCPIT Vice President Dong Songgen, included senior executives from Chinese companies, industry trade groups, legal experts and government officials.

The forum, which was moderated by Tad Ferris, a partner with Holland & Knight LLP and co-chair of USCIB’s China Committee, provided a large Chinese delegation the opportunity to meet with American executives and policy makers, share experiences and gain a deeper understanding of the opportunities for trade and investment between our two countries. The event addressed a range of business issues, presenting both Chinese and American perspectives on such critical topics as intellectual property and innovation, energy and green growth, and enabling frameworks for trade.

Ferris said that the significant effort that went into this forum reflects the importance of the U.S.-China relationship to USCIB and USCIB member companies. He also observed that the forum reinforced bilateral understanding and channels of communication that help USCIB members, Chinese counterparts, and other stakeholders understand critical issues in this relationship and seek mutually beneficial solutions.

Nicole Melcher, the Commerce Department’s director for China and Mongolia, provided keynote remarks, explaining how the U.S. seeks to help smaller companies tap into the burgeoning Chinese market. She said helping American SMEs export to China is a top priority under the Obama administration’s National Export Initiative, which aims to double U.S. exports by 2015.

While SMEs account for more than a third of total U.S. exports, Melcher said, only 10 percent of smaller companies that export are doing so to China. She observed that these companies’ reluctance to enter the Chinese market reflected the uncertainties and risk of doing business there, as well as increasingly aggressive and competitive Chinese companies.

USCIB China Committee Co-Chair Tad Ferris (Holland & Knight) and keynote speaker Nicole Melcher of the U.S. Department of Commerce.

Melcher said the administration aimed to undertake a range of efforts to spur SME exports to China, including a national export marketing campaign, expanded access to financing through the Export-Import Bank and Small Business Administration, and a “one-stop shop” for federal export assistance to promote trade with China.

Melcher also noted the importance of the US-China Joint Commission on Commerce and Trade (JCCT) which is the primary forum for addressing US-China trade issues. The next JCCT will be held before the end of the year.

Another speaker, He Ning, the minister for economic and commercial affairs at the Chinese embassy in Washington, said the economies of China and the United States have never more closely linked than they are today. Total bilateral trade volume reached $466 billion last year, and is expected to reach a new record high this year, he said, while the two countries have become each other’s second-largest trading partners.

But the relationship is not perfect or free of problems, He stated. With have very different legal systems, there is a need for ongoing exchange of legal knowledge between experts in each country to help Chinese and American executives navigate each other’s markets more smoothly, he said.

USCIB Senior Vice President Rob Mulligan praised CCPIT for taking the initiative to propose the forum. “CCPIT has been an important and strategic partner to USCIB for many years,” he said, “and we greatly appreciate the long-term cooperation we have maintained through work on such areas as ATA Carnet and Green Growth.” He said the two groups would work together on a range of initiatives in the future, including a possible forum for USCIB members in Beijing.

More on USCIB’s China Committee

U.S. Negotiator Lays Out Vision for Global Telecom Conference

Published on November 13, 2012

Ambassador Terry Kramer, the lead U.S. negotiator for the World Conference on International Telecommunications

The open and free nature of the Internet has helped to fuel tremendous economic activity in developed and developing countries alike. The keys to ensuring its continued success as a driver of development and innovation lie in a multi-stakeholder approach to governance, and in liberalized telecommunications markets – not in government regulation.

This was the main message delivered by Ambassador Terry Kramer, the head of the U.S. delegation for the upcoming World Conference on International Telecommunications (WCIT), at a USCIB briefing today in Washington, D.C. Kramer discussed preparations for the WCIT, which will be held December 3-14 in Dubai, with USCIB members and other interested parties at the event, which was hosted by David Gross, a partner with Wiley Rein LLP and chair of USCIB’s Information, Technology and Communications Committee.

Kramer discussed the latest U.S. submission to WCIT, a treaty conference held under the auspices of the UN’s International Telecommunication Union (ITU). He also explored the state of play concerning proposals aimed at increasing ITU control over Internet governance.

Citing figures showing that, in recent years, the highest average annual growth rates for Internet use have been in Africa (30 percent) and Asia (17 percent), as compared to lower growth in Europe (10 percent) and the United States (4 percent), Kramer said U.S. negotiators will have a very compelling argument at WCIT that the Internet is not the sole province of the United States. In fact, emerging economies have benefited the most from their ability to freely access cyberspace.

Certain developed and developing economies have supported proposals aimed at generating revenue from content transmitted online from a sending party, as well as giving governments a greater hand in managing internet traffic. Kramer said the U.S. delegation will strongly oppose both proposals. The former, which amounts to a tax in the Internet, would have the effect of stifling Internet-generated economic activity in many developing countries, while the latter represents a very slippery slope toward online censorship, he said.

Kramer stressed that a treaty negotiation like WCIT, which potentially could result in revised, binding International Telecommunications Regulations (ITRs), is not the appropriate place to address the issues driving these proposals, which include financing broadband build outs and addressing spam, hacking, and other security-related challenges. Rather, these issues are best dealt with in appropriate global forums that enable dialogue and input from multiple stakeholders.

Kramer acknowledged that all parties concerned want a forward-looking successful outcome to WCIT – which may not be easy to realize given complexity and divergent nature of the proposals. He said he favors an approach aimed at identifying opportunities for success. Further discussion of problematic proposals would then be pursued in other non-treaty forums.

More on USCIB’s Information, Communications and Technology Committee

New Research Papers Advance Discussion of the Green Economy

Published on November 13, 2012

USCIB and the United States Council Foundation are delighted to announce publication of the Green Perspectives papers as a special supplement of the peer-reviewed journal Energy Economics. The special supplement is available by clicking here.

The Green Economies Dialogue initiative worked with the editors of Energy Economics to invite respected authors to contribute their views and perspectives on a wide range of green economy topics of importance to companies operating in global markets and to society as a whole:

green growth
green jobs
green finance
green economic development
green energy options
green consumer information and
green supply chain management.

Individually and as a collection, these papers provide a major foundational academic contribution to the field, and they can help to inform business and other policy and decision-makers as efforts continue to develop a greener, more prosperous world.

USCIB and the United States Council Foundation were proud to play a prominent role in the Green Economies Dialogue project (see www.green-dialogue.org) We thank the sponsors, national governments, authors and others who participated in and contributed to GED. Special recognition is due BIAC, the Business and Industry Advisory Committee OECD, for its leadership and engagement.

Publication of Green Perspectives completes the second major task of the GED that began early in 2011 as a process to create dialogue among governments, academics, think tanks, international organizations and business during the lead-up to the UN Rio+20 summit held earlier this year. Its overall goals were to enhance understanding of green economy issues and, through dialogue, to promote more effective policies and actions to restore economic growth and promote a greener economy.

The Green Economies Dialogue initiative now enters a planned stocktaking phase to consider what was learned from the dialogues and papers, and to assess future directions and ways forward, especially in the international process.

More on USCIB’s Environment Committee

Internet Governance as Foundation for Job Creation and Economic Growth

Published on November 5, 2012

USCIB and the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) will use their presence at the 7th annual Internet Governance Forum (IGF) on November 6-9 in Baku, Azerbaijan to reinforce the value of a multi-stakeholder approach to public policy development around the Internet and enhanced cooperation in stimulating economic growth.

Jean-Guy Carrier, secretary general of the ICC on behalf of ICC’s Business Action to Support the Information Society (BASIS) initiative, delivered a key message that stakeholders must collaborate more fully in order to bring about the positive policy changes needed to deliver open trade and Internet investment to enhance future economic growth and maintain the free flow of information online.

“There is a clear and positive correlation between investment in the Internet and the growth of economic activity,” he said. “To truly capitalize on this potential for economic growth, cooperation needs to be facilitated and promoted across the whole spectrum of organizations addressing Internet-related issues, including those that are private sector-led, multi-stakeholder and intergovernmental.”

Addressing approximately 1,700 business leaders, government officials, Internet technical experts, and civil society representatives attending this year’s IGF, Mr. Carrier said: “Business feels more strongly than ever that open trade and investment, respect for the rule of law and regulatory predictability, provide a path to growth and job creation. What’s more, bridging borders through global trade and the economic ties made possible by the Internet, has lifted millions of people out of poverty and contributed to improving living standards around the globe.”

Every year at the IGF, ICC’s BASIS serves as the voice of global business in the international dialogue on how the Internet and ICTs can better serve as engines of economic growth and social development. It is ICC’s’ longstanding belief that the IGF’s unique format and founding principles should be protected to ensure that genuine progress continues to be made towards addressing some of the most important global economic and social Internet issues.

David Gross, chair of USCIB’s Information, Communications and Technology (ICT) Committee and partner at Wiley Rein LLP, will be a featured speaker, providing the business perspective on a plenary panel exploring “Managing Critical Internet Resources.” In addition, Joseph Alhadeff, vice president of global public policy and chief privacy officer of Oracle Corporation and chair of Information, Computer and Communication (ICCP) Committee for BIAC, the Business and Industry Advisory Committee to the OECD, will contribute his considerable expertise on global privacy policy to a plenary session, “Security, Openness, and Privacy,” which will examine issues affecting security and openness of the Internet as it relates to human rights and access to knowledge. Barbara Wanner, USCIB’s vice president of ICT policy, will also attend the IGF.

Click here to read more on ICC’s website.

More on USCIB’s Information, Communications and Technology Committee

ICC Champions Green Economy Business Priorities in South Africa

Published on October 31, 2012

During the Environment & Energy Commission meeting the panelists discussed solutions for a green economy

The International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) experts underscored the crucial role played by business in tackling the challenges of climate change, at the 15th annual meeting of the International Business Forum (IBF) in Pretoria earlier this month.

Around 260 participants, mainly from the private sector and government, took part in the conference organized on behalf of the German government by the German Agency for International Cooperation, in collaboration with the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) and the Johannesburg Chamber of Commerce.

The event offered the opportunity for large companies to connect with SMEs and discuss business models for a changing climate.

“Companies build a green future every day by delivering and deploying their innovations, products and services,” said Andrea Bacher, Policy Manager of the ICC Commission on Environment and Energy, in her opening remarks. “However, more effort is required to scale up and implement green solutions in today’s globalized world.”

The guiding framework for the discussion was the ICC Green Economy Roadmap, a widely acclaimed set of business recommendations outlining how economic growth, environmental sustainability and social progress have to work together in a mutually reinforcing fashion.

Click here to read more on ICC’s website.

More on USCIB’s Environment Committee

IP Protection Key to Russias Economic Development and Growth, ICC BASCAP Warns Leaders

Published on October 22, 2012

The International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) told business leaders and government officials – including Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev – gathered in Moscow for the International Forum on Anti-counterfeiting 2012 that efforts to stabilize the economy and stimulate economic growth must include intellectual property rights (IPR) protection in order to drive innovation, development and jobs.

“This conference comes at an important time as Russia joins the World Trade Organization (WTO) and takes on direct participation in the WTO Agreement on Trade-related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS),” wrote ICC Secretary General Jean-Guy Carrier in an open letter to the Forum participants. “Russia’s adoption of TRIPs will be a significant boost to the fight against counterfeiting – here in the Russian Federation and worldwide.”

Representing ICC’s Business Action to Stop Counterfeiting and Piracy (BASCAP) initiative at the Forum, BASCAP Director Jeffrey Hardy presented the findings from the BASCAP report “Promoting and Protecting Intellectual Property Rights in the Russian Federation”. The report sets out BASCAP’s recommendations for policy and legislative changes needed to bring Russia’s IP regime and IP enforcement efforts up to international standards.

Just 20 years ago, Russia was one of the worst IPR infringers in the world, and even with some recent reforms, counterfeiting and piracy in Russia still amounts to a staggering 24% of key retail sales, equal to nearly a trillion rubles, according to the report.

Click here to read more on ICC’s website.

BASCAP – Promoting and Protecting Intellectual Property in the Russian Federation

New Portal Showcases Benefits of Open Markets for FDI

Published on October 16, 2012

New York, N.Y., October 16, 2012 – The United States Council for International Business (USCIB) today joined with six other business associations to launch a new online information clearinghouse, Investment Policy Central, highlighting the importance of an open climate for foreign direct investment in driving U.S. economic growth, trade and jobs.

“USCIB has long been a leading voice for open investment policies, on both inward and outward FDI flows,” stated USCIB President and CEO Peter M. Robinson. “We are excited about this new website as way to spread our message, and those policies, more widely.”

Investment Policy Central is now live at www.investmentpolicycentral.com.

The business groups said Investment Policy Central will serve as a center of excellence for the most accurate, up-to-date information on the benefits of an open international investment climate. The site presents facts and figures on investment, highlights the benefits of global investment, debunks common investment myths and provides links to a wide range of resources on investment policy.

Investment Policy Central will feature timely, relevant content from experts on investment policy. Site organizers said they would welcome suggestions and input from companies, associations, organizations, think tanks, academics and other individuals interested in promoting an open international investment climate.

One of USCIB’s initial contributions to the site is an overview of recently updated guidelines for international investment from the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC), the worldwide business body that is part of USCIB’s global network. The ICC guidelines elaborate a number of steps both governments and companies can take to ensure maximum benefits from international investment.

“USCIB will continue to lead a strong advocacy and education effort on behalf of open investment policies,” Robinson said. “Our message is simple: FDI, both inward and outward, is good for the U.S. economy, for our competitiveness in today’s global marketplace, for U.S. companies and for U.S. jobs.”

The United States is the world’s leading investor nation as well as the largest host country for foreign direct investment. Overall, global inward investment flows now approach $1.2 trillion, and sales of affiliates worldwide are just under $30 trillion, far in excess of world trade flows.

In addition to USCIB, the partner associations in the Investment Policy Central initiative include the Coalition of Services Industries, Emergency Committee for American Trade, National Center for APEC, National Foreign Trade Council, Organization for International Investment and U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

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.

More on USCIB’s Trade and Investment Committee

UN Endorses Incoterms® 2010, ICC’s Rules for International Trade

Published on October 16, 2012

The latest version of the Incoterms® rules, standard commercial terms from the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) for use in contracts for the sale of goods, have been officially endorsed by the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL), confirming their position as the global standard for international business transactions.

UNCITRAL, whose mandate is to remove legal obstacles for international trade, applauded ICC for its “valuable” contribution to facilitating the conduct of global trade by making the Incoterms® 2010 rules simpler and clearer, reflecting recent developments in international trade.

Based in Paris, ICC is the world business organization that forms part of USCIB’s global network. The endorsement was published after UNCITRAL’s 45th session in New York, with a decision to “commend the use of Incoterms® 2010, as appropriate, in international sales transactions.”

“We are thrilled to have the continued support of UNCITRAL, one of the most renowned and influential organs dealing with international business,” said Emily O’Connor, senior policy manager of the ICC Commission on Commercial Law and Practice.

The Incoterms® rules, developed by experts and practitioners brought together by ICC, are used worldwide in international and domestic transactions for the sale of goods. ICC first defined the Incoterms® rules in 1936, and has since revised the rules a number of times. The latest version came into effect in January 2011.

The Incoterms® rules have been recognized by UNCITRAL since the 1960s as the global standard for the interpretation of the most common terms in foreign trade. They have had the support of many international organizations, notably the United Nations, not only through UNCITRAL but also through the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE), whose Centre for Trade Facilitation and Electronic Business recommends the use of the Incoterms® rules.

To order a copy of Incoterms® 2010 and related titles, visit the USCIB International Bookstore.

Upcoming Incoterms 2010 Seminars

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News Brief New ICC Tool Responds to G20 AntiCorruption Call

Published on October 10, 2012

The International Chamber of Commerce (ICC), part of USCIB’s global network, has unveiled the latest addition to its suite of tools to help business stamp out corruption: the ICC anti-corruption clause.

Designed for inclusion in any contract, the clause is part of ICC’s commitment to supporting implementation of the United Nations Convention against Corruption (UNCAC) and more active engagement with the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) Anti-Bribery Working Group. It delivers a pragmatic response to calls from G20 leaders for the private sector to play an active role in fighting corruptive practices.

The new clause provides a contractual basis for parties to commit to complying with ICC’s voluntary Rules on Combating Corruption or to implement a corporate anti-corruption compliance program.

Available to download free of charge from ICC’s remodeled website, the clause can support both small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and multinational companies in their efforts to prevent their contractual relationships being affected by corruption.