Policy Areas Archives

New Roadmap for Global Intellectual Property Protection Launched

Published on January 25, 2012

The International Chamber of Commerce (ICC), the world business organization for which USCIB serves as the American affiliate, has launched the 11th edition of its flagship intellectual property (IP) publication ICC Intellectual Property Roadmap: Current and Emerging Issues for Business and Policymakers.

Presenting the new edition in Geneva at the inaugural Licensing Executives Society International’s Global Technology Impact Forum, David Koris, chair of the ICC Commission on Intellectual Property, said: “The IP Roadmap has undergone extensive updates to reflect key developments in the IP policy landscape. It is an invaluable tool to bring policymakers and business leaders worldwide up to date on IP-related issues, from measures to control copyright and trademark infringement on the Internet to the mediation of IP disputes.”

Containing contributions from ICC experts and members from around the globe, the popular ICC Roadmap is a useful reference tool to help business, policy and legal professionals worldwide keep pace with the rapidly evolving intellectual property landscape. Published every two years, it is translated into several languages including Arabic, Chinese, German, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish and Ukrainian.

Read more on ICC’s website.

More on USCIB’s Intellectual Property Committee

Business Looks Forward to Rio+20 Earth Summit

Published on January 23, 2012

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With less than six months to go, this June’s UN Conference on Sustainable Development in Rio de Janeiro is still a largely unknown quantity for the business community.  The June 20-22 event has been dubbed “Rio+20,” since it comes two decades years after the UN’s seminal 1992 Earth Summit in the same city.

As negotiated in numerous preparatory sessions, the agenda for Rio+20 is broad but vague, encompassing “the green economy,” “institutional frameworks” and “emerging issues.”  These remain largely empty outlines – although there are a wealth of proposals from governments and NGOs.

In anticipation of last-minute and intense preparation between now and the summit, USCIB intends to focus on the main business issues on the table, and is working to engage its members in shaping preparations for the event and influencing its expected outcomes, mainly through dialogue with the Obama administration, UN officials and other international policymakers.

Working through the United States Council Foundation, USCIB members and others in the policy community are developing business perspectives and academic input on green economy policy input via the Green Economies Dialogue project (www.green-dialogue.org).  We will be holding Dialogue meetings in Brasilia and Tokyo in the coming months, following successful meetings in Washington and Paris last fall.   USCIB is also interfacing directly with the U.S. State Department and the Obama administration on an array of issues expected to be front-and-center in Rio.

Other efforts to organize business input to the Rio+20 process include Business Action for Sustainable Development 2012 (BASD2012) – a joint effort between the International Chamber of Commerce, the World Business Council for Sustainable Development, the UN Global Compact and several other business organizations – as well as the UN Global Compact in its own right.

USCIB provided business input for the so-called “zero draft” being discussed at UN meetings in New York this week, both directly and in a joint submission with several other business groups to Robert Hormats, under-secretary of state for economic, energy, and agriculture affairs, which seeks to raise the business community’s official role in the summit.  Mr. Hormats will meet with USCIB’s Environment Committee on March 14 in Washington, D.C.

Registration for the Rio+20 summit is now open, and USCIB is working to secure accreditation for member executives wishing to attend.  Please contact Kira Yevtukhova (kyevtukhova@uscib.org) for details.

In addition, the government of the Netherlands and the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs are collaborating with BASD2012 to convene a two-day event in preparation for Rio+20. The event, “Realizing Green Growth: Business & Industry Consultation with Government and Civil Society for Rio+20,” will be held in Amsterdam during the week of April 10 (specific dates to be confirmed). The meeting will provide a forum to discuss Rio+20 issues, including the role of business in green growth.  Please contact Ms. Yevtukhova for more information.

Staff contact: Norine Kennedy

More on USCIB’s Environment Committee

From the President: Green Growth Getting the Policies Right

Published on December 22, 2011

The Green Economies Dialogue aims to spur discussion of environmentally friendly innovation, jobs and trade in global markets.

peter-robinsonWhile everyone agrees on the need for greener growth, there is less consensus on how we get there.

A new project, the Green Economies Dialogue, aims to bring the policy and business communities together for intensive discussion of the best paths forward. Funded by the United States Council Foundation, USCIB’s educational and research arm, the project mobilizes experts from the public and private sectors, along with leading academics and NGOs, with the goal of providing a clear road forward on green growth, green jobs and a host of related issues.

The most recent UN climate talks underlined the critical importance – for companies, national governments and global institutions – of finding more environmentally friendly paths for business and economic development in the years ahead. Effectively addressing our current economic and environmental challenges will depend on international cooperation that works in synergy with global markets and rules.

We expect the Green Economies Dialogue project to inform policy debate in the lead-up to June’s UN Rio+20 Summit and beyond. Industry, government and other actors must work together to make the transition to a global framework where the private sector and the marketplace have bottom-line motivations to drive improvements in technology and business practices.

The Green Economies Dialogue initiative will provide a platform for discussion of key international policy questions, with the goal of ensuring that economic growth and the pursuit of environmental objectives go hand-in-hand. These include:

  • How can environmental innovation in such areas as energy use or agriculture best be shared around the world, providing opportunities to promote sustainability while maintaining competitiveness?
  • What role should international institutions like the G20, the United Nations and the OECD have in coordinating policies among national governments?
  • How can the logjam of trade and climate negotiations be broken, to foster integrated policies that incentivize innovation, broadly deploy solutions and mobilize financial resources?
  • Are subsidies an effective way to encourage start-ups and investment in new technologies, and what other options can governments pursue to help nurture as yet non-commercial options?

The Green Economies Dialogue will convene regional workshops around the world. The first of these took place in Washington, D.C. on October 12 in a day-long session bringing together more than 50 experts from business, government, academia and the NGO communities, hosted by the environmental research organization Resources for the Future.

“The Washington workshop was an important first step in exploring the policy options to foster green innovation and resource efficiency,” said Phil Sharp, president of Resources for the Future.

Another workshop was held at the OECD in Paris in November, hosted by BIAC, the Business and Industry Advisory Committee to the OECD. Over 80 participants, including representatives from a dozen OECD member countries and several OECD Directorates, attended the meeting, which was opened by Simon Upton, head of the OECD Environment Directorate. Additional workshops are planned for Japan and Brazil during the first quarter of 2012.

As part of the Green Economies Dialogue, academic research is being commissioned for publication in the influential publication Energy Economics ahead of the Rio+20 Summit. Research papers by highly regarded experts will explore a variety of aspects of green growth and green jobs.

The Green Economies Dialogue website (www.green-dialogue.org) is gathering informative materials from numerous points of view, including summaries, statements and papers from the various workshops, as well as summaries of the Energy Economics research. Support for the project is being provided by various private-sector sources through the United States Council Foundation.

This is just another example of USCIB’s convening power, and our ability to drive international debate and consensus on issues critical to global business, the world economy and the health of the planet.

Other recent postings from Mr. Robinson:

Supply Chain Challenges (Fall 2011)

Opening the World for Business (Summer 2011)

The OECD at 50 (Spring 2011)

Dealing With State-Owned Enterprises (Winter 2010-2011)

Global Business Takes Part in G20 Employment Session

Published on December 20, 2011

As host duties for the G20 transitioned from France to Mexico, Mexico City was the site on December 15 of the first meeting of the G20 Employment Task Force, with youth unemployment as its principal focus.  The IOE and BIAC were invited by the Mexican government to organize the participation of the business delegation, which was led by USCIB Executive Vice President Ronnie Goldberg, who serves as the IOE’s regional vice president for North America and chairs BIAC’s Employment, Labor and Social Affairs Committee.   An IOE-BIAC paper prepared for the meeting focused on enhancing youth employability, creating inclusive labor markets for young people, and ways to foster youth entrepreneurship.

Staff contact: Ronnie Goldberg

More on USCIB’s Labor and Employment Policy Committee

Transatlantic Economic Council: US and EU Commit to Stronger Economic Ties

Published on December 9, 2011

4209_image002Under the leadership of European Union Trade Commissioner Karel De Gucht and U.S. Deputy National Security Advisor for International Economic Affairs Michael Froman, the Transatlantic Economic Council (TEC) met last week, during the U.S.-EU Summit, to discuss more cohesive and mutually beneficial regulatory cooperation between the U.S and EU, with a focus on opportunities in innovative sectors to ensure continued economic success and job creation.

The TEC discussions highlighted the need for bilateral efforts to avoid the creation of unnecessary regulatory and standards barriers to trade, especially in emerging sectors such as nanotechnology and electric vehicles, in strengthening joint approaches to third countries, and in developing commitments to shared principles for international investment by early 2012.

Among the positive outcomes of the TEC, USCIB applauds the much awaited agreement reached by the EU Directorate for Trade and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security on mutual recognition of our trusted trader programs, AEO and C-TPAT.   The agreement will enter into force in June 2012.

USCIB urges the European Union and the U.S. to continue the positive momentum of the TEC into 2012 and looks forward to working with officials by providing input and recommendations from our membership on current and future areas of regulatory cooperation.

Staff contact: Justine Badimon

More on USCIB’s European Union Committee

USCIB to Prepare Recommendations on Next Steps for Trade

Published on December 9, 2011

At the December 1 meeting of USCIB’s Trade and Investment Committee, chaired by Scott Miller (director of national government relations with Procter & Gamble), members moved forward on planned USCIB recommendations on the international trade and investment agenda.

With the recent passage of three long-pending free trade agreements with Colombia, Korea and Panama, the continued lack of progress in the WTO’s Doha Round and growing protectionist sentiment in many key markets, a USCIB task force is developing broad yet detailed recommendations for the United States and other governments on what is needed to spur greater liberalization of trade and investment.  The recommendations are expected to be completed in February.

The committee held a discussion with Everett Eissenstat, trade counsel with the Senate Finance Committee, covering a wide range of trade issues including the recent APEC summit, the Trans-Pacific Partnership, Russia’s accession to the WTO, Customs reauthorization, Trade Promotion Authority, Doha and other trade priorities for 2012.

In addition, the committee reviewed plans for a possible USCIB study of global production networks and their impact on U.S. competitiveness.  Members also heard an update on USCIB’s work USCIB on investment issues, especially state-owned enterprises and competitive neutrality.

Staff contact: Rob Mulligan

More on USCIB’s Trade and Investment Committee

Business Urges Vigilance on Postal Authorities

Published on December 4, 2011

As postal revenue dries up around the world, many publicly operated postal organizations may be tempted to get into new lines of business.  This presents a vexing challenge to private-sector companies that may find themselves in competition with these state-supported entities.

To address these concerns, last month USCIB and three other business groups sent a letter to the Obama Administration urging the U.S. to prepare diligently for the next ministerial-level congress of the Universal Postal Union (UPU), which will take place in Qatar in September 2012.

“We see potentially important issues on the table at the UPU session, including unhelpful efforts from some quarters to extend the scope of government-run postal monopolies into new areas, potentially competing with the private sector,” stated Shaun Donnelly, USCIB’s vice president for investment and financial services.  “Package delivery, insurance, financial services and retail are just some of the sectors where postal monopolies might try to encroach in an effort to offset shrinking volumes and financial losses in their postal services.”

The business groups urged the administration to form an interagency committee to develop coordinated pro-market, pro-competition positions for the U.S. delegation leading up to and at the UPU congress.  They also recommend that the State Department, Postal Service and the U.S. interagency team work closely with relevant private-sector entities throughout this preparatory period.

Other groups signing the letter with USCIB were the American Council of Life Insurers, Coalition of Service Industries and U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

Staff contact: Shaun Donnelly

More on USCIB’s European Union Committee

Business Looking to Move Forward at UN Climate Conference, Even as Governments Wrestle With Developing Country Obligations

Published on December 1, 2011

4205_image002USCIB and its partner business groups are actively pushing for progress at the UN climate conference now underway in Durban, South Africa.  But governments are hamstrung by precedent-setting decisions taken two decades ago.

A number of USCIB member company representatives, as well as Norine Kennedy, USCIB’s vice president of environment and energy, are attending the conference.  They are in Durban as part of the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) delegation. ICC has long served  as the business focal point in the climate negotiations.

Other groups are in Durban as well, working to ensure business engagement in support of meaningful action to address climate change.  Increasingly prominent in this regard is the Major Economies Business Forum on Energy Security and Climate Change (BizMEF), which consists of major business groups from G20 countries.

BizMEF has just released a series of important papers, with general perspectives on the Durban negotiations, and examining business engagement, the role of technology, establishing a green climate fund, the use of carbon offsets, and competitiveness issues.

Yesterday, Ms. Kennedy published an insightful column on the website GreenBiz that notes the varying expectations of business and the governments represented in Durban, and describes the genesis and work of BizMEF.  She writes that even as business presses for meaningful progress on global measures to address climate change, government delegates are laboring under the burden of precedent-setting decisions, made some two decades ago, to bifurcate climate obligations between developed and developing countries.

“Some countries that were developing countries then, such as China and India, are now growing rapidly and are major economic forces in their own right,” writes Ms. Kennedy.  “If current trends continue in the fastest growing developing country economies, reductions made in developed countries will be cancelled out and overtaken by emissions in the BRICs in coming years.”

The United States and countries including Australia, Canada, Russia and Japan have strongly encouraged a new framework obliging all major economies, whether developed or developing, to take action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. But, Ms. Kennedy wrote, “as evidenced in the entrenched positions being expressed here, this is prevented by the precedents that do not allow updating to reflect today’s realities.”

Staff contact: Norine Kennedy

More on USCIB’s Environment Committee

USCIB Keeps Tabs on UN Discussions of Chemicals in Products

Published on November 30, 2011

4208_image002Helen Medina, USCIB’s director of life sciences and product policy, recently attended the Open-Ended Working Group (OEWG) meeting of the UN’s International Conference on Chemicals Management (ICCM) which was held November 15-18 in Belgrade.

In 2006, ICCM adopted the Strategic Approach to International Chemicals Management (SAICM) as a policy framework to foster the sound management of chemicals.  SAICM was developed by a multi-stakeholder and multi-sectoral preparatory committee, and supports the achievement of the goal – agreed at the 2002 Johannesburg World Summit on Sustainable Development – of ensuring that, by the year 2020, chemicals are produced and used in ways that minimize significant adverse impacts on the environment and human health.

The functions of the OEWG are to consider the implementation, development and enhancement of the Strategic Approach to International Chemicals, and to make recommendations for ICCM3, which will be held in September 2012 in Nairobi.

The overarching issue that impacted the discussions at the OEWG surrounded the financing and technical resources for implementing SAICM goals. This included the financing of the Quick Start Program and of SAICM itself. As such, many delegates felt that unless financing and technical issues were resolved, there was little point in discussing other issues for possible inclusion on the provisional agenda of ICCM3.

To deal with the issue of long-term and short-term finance issues, the president of the meeting created a “Group of the Friends of the President” and a “Committee of the Whole (COW)” to prepare draft decisions or resolutions for possible adoption by ICCM3. Although there were several issues of interest that USCIB followed during the meeting, it was the Chemical in Products project which has generated the most interest among USCIB’s members.

SAICM is a voluntary policy framework, implemented in a multi-stakeholder process, and sets as one of its main objectives that information and knowledge about chemicals contained in products “is available, accessible, user friendly, adequate and appropriate to the needs of all stakeholders.” As a step towards fulfilling this objective, the second session of the governing body of SAICM, the International Conference  for Chemicals Management (ICCM2), in May 2009 recognized chemicals in products as an emerging policy issue, and adopted a resolution which invited UNEP to lead a Chemicals in Products (CiP) project.

Since ICCM2, the UN Environment Program, the lead agency for this topic, has been focusing its work on understanding the availability of information on CiP. There were in-depth studies in specific sectors on this topic and a workshop was held to make suggestions on how to move this project forward. The major recommendation from the workshop was to develop a voluntary framework to facilitate the flow of information on CiP.

For a more detailed report of the meeting please refer to the Draft Report of the Work of the Open-ended Working Group of the International Conference on Chemicals Management at its First meeting, the Addendum to the Draft Report of the OEWG, and the Draft Decisions Submitted by the Committee of the Whole.

Staff contact: Helen Medina

More on USCIB’s Product Policy Working Group

Business Groups Seek Reporting Relief for Employees at Worldwide Firms

Published on November 29, 2011

Earlier this month, USCIB joined several leading business groups in sending a letter to the U.S. Treasury Department, requesting less burdensome rules for Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts (FBAR) filings required by employees of worldwide American companies involved in global finance.

In the letter to James H. Freis, Jr., the director of the Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), the business groups sought a reduced burden on employees of companies which report to the Securities and Exchange Commission. The associations wrote: “Multinational companies are increasingly frustrated by changing rules that unnecessarily expand the FBAR filing requirements for their employees, create traps for innocent violations and potentially impose costly penalties.”

The letter stated that current FBAR rules are burdensome, complex and “create the potential for inadvertent errors by corporate finance employees.”  It said companies do not want to subject their employees to tax penalties for inadvertent failure to follow the “confusing” FBAR rules.

The primary objective of FBAR filings is to help the government detect money laundering or other criminal activity through the use of foreign financial accounts. The associations emphasized in the letter that their members do not pose a meaningful risk of such activities, and their employees should not be exposed to penalties for not making individual filings in any case.

Signing the letter in addition to USCIB were the National Foreign Trade Council, Financial Executives International Committee on Taxation, Software Finance and Tax Executives Council, U.S. Chamber of Commerce, TechAmerica and Information Technology Industry Council.

Staff contact: Carol Doran Klein

More on USCIB’s Taxation Committee