Policy Areas Archives

USCIB Pushes for Equitable, Stable Tax Systems and SDG Implementation at UN

Published on March 5, 2018

Over 500 participants attended the First Global Conference of the Platform for Collaboration on Taxation and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) on February 14-16 at the United Nations headquarters in New York. The conference was spearheaded by the OECD, the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and the United Nations’ office for Financing for Development (FfD). Participants included governments from over 110 countries as well as representatives across the UN system, multilateral development banks, business and other non-governmental organizations.

This meeting was the latest action pursuant to the FfD Addis Ababa outcomes calling for international cooperation on domestic resource mobilization, in relation to taxation and Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS).  As such, it aimed to advance global dialogue with relevant stakeholders on how to better design tax policy to achieve the SDGs.

Pascal Saint-Amans of the OECD Tax Policy and Administration Centre was actively involved, reminding the conference in several interventions that the Inclusive Framework on BEPS has been an open and inclusive process, in which dozens of developing country representatives have been involved.

Will Morris, chair of the Business at OECD/OECD Tax Committee stated that the combination of new tax programs, rules and reforms is moving toward enhanced international cooperation and better practice at the local level. He stated that business is rarely the source of obstacles in tax reform; more frequently, disagreements between governments are the source of blockages.

Deputy Assistant Administrator in the Bureau for Economic Growth, Education and Environment at USAID Karl Fickenscher spoke about the importance of public-private partnership involving the private sector and tax authorities relating to development projects and other SDG areas.

The wide-ranging discussions in main sessions and side events focused on three areas: opportunities to improve international cooperation and advance capacity building on taxation, options to enhance international cooperation for domestic resource mobilization relevant to SDG implementation, and tax policy to motivate SDG-facing choices for environment, health, and energy.

The host organizations confirmed that the Platform will issue “Toolkits” in the coming months for “guidance” purposes.  USCIB expects enhanced coordination between the four organizations which have committed to speak with “one voice” when providing taxation advice to developing economies.

Interventions from developing country representatives highlighted continued concerns that they are excluded from global tax policymaking. In this context, USCIB anticipates further proposals to upgrade the UN’s Tax Committee to an intergovernmental body at the next major UN financing forum in April.

“Fighting perceptions of a ‘race to the bottom’ approach by business – the reality is that business seeks equitable and stable tax systems, and level of taxation is one consideration among many,” said Norine Kennedy, USCIB vice president for strategic international engagement, energy and environment, who attended the meetings. “Successful tax reform depends on trust and confidence of citizens, and on transparency.  Collaboration among governments, labor organizations and employers’ groups can advance that trust both in taxation and overall economic policy.”

USCIB will continue to monitor developments on these issues in the OECD, UN FfD process, and in further Platform activities through USCIB’s Tax Committee and SDG Working Group.

USCIB Responds to Announcement of New US Steel, Aluminum Tariffs

Published on March 2, 2018

Washington, D.C., March 2, 2018 – The United States Council for International Business (USCIB), which represents America’s most successful global companies, issued the following statement on the Trump administration’s announced plans to impose new duties of 25 percent and 10 percent, respectively, on imports of foreign steel and aluminum:

“USCIB strongly supports a more competitive America, which enjoys economic growth and jobs by increasing exports, opening global markets and securing a level playing field for our goods and services. We are disappointed with the administration’s decision. History clearly teaches that fomenting trade wars with our commercial partners is likely to backfire on the United States, harming American businesses, workers, farmers and consumers in the process.

“The imposition of tariffs on steel and aluminum will lead to higher prices for U.S.-made products, reducing the competitiveness of our exports, and will probably eliminate more jobs than it saves. In addition, it is likely to create strong disincentives for foreign investment in the United States, and to spur higher inflation. 

“Most importantly, these protectionist tariffs are likely to cause a chain reaction of retaliatory measures by our trading partners, as many of them have already indicated. Other nations are likely to target our most competitive exports and otherwise disadvantage American companies.

“We hope that these measures will be short-lived. We urge the Trump administration and America’s trading partners to work cooperatively and swiftly to address the serious issues associated with steel and aluminum dumping, and to open up new markets for our exports and new opportunities for American workers, farmers and consumers to prosper in the wider world.”

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, generating $5 trillion in annual revenues and employing over 11 million people worldwide. As the U.S. affiliate of several leading international business organizations, USCIB provides business views to policy makers and regulatory authorities worldwide, and works to facilitate international trade and investment. More information is available at www.uscib.org.

Contact:
Jonathan Huneke, USCIB
jhuneke@uscib.org, +1 212.703.5043

Thevenin Serves as Arbitrator at Annual Vis Moot Practice Session

Published on February 26, 2018

USCIB/ICC USA held it’s 12th Annual Vis Moot Practice Session earlier this month. The practice moots help law school students hone their advocacy skills in preparation for competing in one of the premier events in international arbitration – the Willem V. Vis Moot Competition in Vienna, Austria — which brings together over 300 law schools competing before hundreds of the world’s best international arbitration experts.

The Practice Session was co-organized with the ICC International Court of Arbitration’s North America office, and included eight law schools (Brooklyn, Cardozo, Fordham, Heidelberg University, New York, New York University, Pace University and the University of Bucharest) with over 30 New York-based arbitration professionals serving as mock arbitrators.

This year’s problem involved the sale of bakery goods under the United Nations Convention on the International Sale of Goods and applied the UNICTRAL Rules of Arbitration to the parties’ dispute.

“USCIB/ICC USA is proud to help support this effort to help train tomorrow’s law leaders in international arbitration,” said Nancy M. Thevenin, general counsel of USCIB/ICC USA, who also served as a mock arbitrator at the practice session. “We thank Javier H. Rubinstein of member firm Kirkland & Ellis, LLP, for hosting this event and for serving as a mock arbitrator.  We also thank Seoun “Nikole” Lee, deputy director, Alexandra Akerly, manager, strategy and development; and Mehr Kaur, promotion, officer of the ICC Court in North America for taking on the oars of organizing the practice session this year.”

Private Sector Meets with Governments on Digital Security Risk

Published on February 26, 2018

Addressing digital security across business fields, Business at OECD members participated in an OECD Workshop on Digital Security and Resilience in Critical Infrastructures and Essential Services earlier this month in Paris to contribute to the OECD‘s Going Digital Project.

The OECD Going Digital Project was officially launched in Berlin in 2017 and aims to examine how the digital transformation affects policy-making across a large spectrum of policy areas, including competition, consumer policy, digital economy policy (privacy, security, infrastructure, economic impact), science, technology and innovation, industry and entrepreneurship, insurance and private pensions, financial markets, fiscal affairs and taxation and much more. The project will draw on national experiences and policy experimentation occurring across the OECD’s 35 member countries, its accession countries, key partners and many other economies involved in the OECD’s work.

At the meeting earlier this month, which featured USCIB member Chris Boyer (AT&T), Business at OECD members emphasized the importance of a multi-stakeholder approach to cooperation and information exchange between actors – business, government, civil society and the technical community – to ensure effective and appropriate security and privacy protections.

“Importantly, workshop participants underscored the importance of using existing OECD consensus-based and multi-stakeholder developed security and privacy frameworks – the 2015 OECD Digital Risk Management for Economic and Society Prosperity and the 2013 OECD Privacy Framework,” said Barbara Wanner, USCIB Vice President for ICT Policy. “There is no need for OECD member nations – or non-member nations – who are looking to improve their approaches to security and privacy to ‘reinvent the wheel’ because these two products serve as solid building blocks,” Wanner said.

USCIB Partners with Japanese Group Keidanren on NAFTA Letter

Published on February 26, 2018

With the National Governors Association meeting last week and this week and the next round of NAFTA negotiations starting this week, USCIB coordinated with the Japanese business group, Keidanren, on a joint letter to each governor expressing support for keeping and modernizing NAFTA.

“Having worked closely with Keidanren in promoting the importance of foreign direct investment to government leaders in international forums such as G20, OECD and the United Nations, we wanted to leverage our joint voices to highlight the importance of NAFTA in driving the growth of foreign direct investment into the United States,” said Rob Mulligan, USCIB senior vice president for policy. “The investment by Japanese companies into the U.S. serves as an example of this growth and each letter identifies the number of jobs in the particular state that are accounted for by Japanese-owned firms.”

The letters stress the position USCIB has urged from the beginning that the negotiations “do no harm” to the existing NAFTA framework and then reinforces key messages related to ISDS, rules of origin, government procurement, and any sunset provision.

“We hope this letter will encourage the governors to actively engage the Administration on achieving a modernized NAFTA that we can all support,” added Mulligan.

Hampl Leads Group for NAFTA Lobby Day to Voice Concerns

Published on February 20, 2018

With the next NAFTA negotiating round now set for Mexico City later this month, USCIB Director for Investment, Trade and Financial Services Eva Hampl joined more than 100 representatives from the business and agriculture community last Wednesday for a second NAFTA House Lobby Day. The Lobby Day gave business representatives the opportunity to talk about business concerns and perspectives regarding the ongoing negotiations to modernize NAFTA and to increase support on the leadup to the next round of negotiations, scheduled for February 26 to March 6.

Hampl led one of the groups on the Hill, which included representatives from other associations and companies from the business and agriculture community. “The diversity of sectors represented was extremely helpful in getting our message across,” said Hampl. “Our group alone met with 9 offices throughout the day, receiving generally positive feedback about supporting our issues and concerns, including potential interest in signing on to a House NAFTA letter.”

Hampl will be traveling to Mexico for part of the next round at the end of February.

Ericsson’s Kallay to Chair USCIB Competition Committee

Published on February 15, 2018
Dina Kallay

New York, N.Y, February 15, 2018 – A telecommunications industry executive has been tapped to spearhead a top U.S. business group’s work on global antitrust policy. The United States Council for International Business (USCIB) has announced that Dina Kallay, head of antitrust (IPR, Americas & Asia-Pacific) at Ericsson, a leading global supplier of telecommunications equipment and services, will chair its Competition Committee.

USCIB, whose member include hundreds of America’s most competitive global companies, represents private-sector views to governments and policy makers worldwide. It does so via its affiliations with global business groups to focus especially on the work of the International Competition Network (ICN) and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).

“We are delighted that Dina Kallay will lend her expertise and industry leadership to our work on global competition and antitrust policy,” said USCIB President and CEO Peter M. Robinson. “As the U.S. continues to look to the ICN and OECD to foster international convergence and cooperation on competition law, including the coordination of cartel enforcement, we intend to serve as an even stronger voice for business in these forums.”

Prior to joining Ericsson in 2013, Kallay served as counsel at the U.S. Federal Trade Commission’s Office of International Affairs, where she focused on Asian and multilateral competition matters as well as on worldwide antitrust intellectual property matters. She previously worked at the European Commission’s antitrust agency (DG COMP), and practiced antitrust and intellectual property law at a number of law firms, most recently at Howrey LLP. Kallay is vice chair of the American Bar Association’s Section of Antitrust Law I.P. Committee and a non-governmental advisor to the International Competition Network. She also serves as an adjunct professor at Georgetown Law School.

The USCIB Competition Committee promotes international legal policies that favor an open and competitive environment for U.S. business. The committee monitors global competition developments and contributes industry’s perspective through USCIB’s global network.

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 the International Chamber of Commerce, the International Organization of Employers and Business at OECD, USCIB provides business views to policy makers and regulatory authorities worldwide, and works to facilitate international trade and investment. More information is available at www.uscib.org.

Contact:
Jonathan Huneke, USCIB
+1 917 420 0039, jhuneke@uscib.org

Wanner Helps Lead ICANN Intercessional Meeting in California

Published on February 12, 2018

USCIB Vice President for ICT Policy Barbara Wanner attended a meeting in Los Angeles, California earlier this month in her capacity as a member of the Business Constituency (BC) Executive Committee of the Internet Corporation of Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN).

The February 1-2 meeting, known as the 5th Non-Contracted Party House (NCPH) Intersessional, brought together seven delegates from each of the six Commercial Stakeholder Group and Non-Commercial Stakeholder Group constituencies within ICANN. The two-day gathering, featuring Wanner and BC Chair Claudia Selli, AT&T, among other USCIB members, served as a dedicated forum for discussions about domain name policy and procedural “in-house” issues that regular ICANN meetings often cannot accommodate.

“Overall, the meeting was notable in highlighting the two houses’ shared values and potential for collaboration, but also indicating some challenges,” Wanner said. In particular, the meeting enabled the two houses to explore with ICANN CEO Göran Marby and members of the Board many concerns – both shared and differing – about the implications of the May 25, 2018 implementation of the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) on ICANN’s WHOIS database policies and the contractual obligations of Registries and Registrars.

“These discussions were especially timely in view of ICANN’s plan to select an interim GDPR-compliant WHOIS model in the coming weeks,” Wanner noted. The NCPH and ICANN’s Contracted Party House can be expected to seek clarity about elements of the interim compliance model at ICANN 61, which will be held on March 10-15 in San Juan, Puerto Rico.

Other topics explored at the NCPH Intersessional included the status of ongoing work aimed at revising procedures for the next launch of new top-level domain names, challenges to improving protective mechanisms for brand names and intellectual property, and expanding transparency at ICANN legal with respect to invoking attorney/client privilege for various processes.

ICC Academy Launches Free e-Course on Responsible Marketing and Advertising

Published on February 8, 2018
The new ICC Academy e-course builds on decades of expertise in establishing high standards for marketers and ad agencies.

The educational arm of the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC), the ICC Academy, has launched a new e-course based on ICC’s internationally-recognized Marketing and Advertising Code. Entitled “Ethical Marketing and Advertising” (EMA), the e-course is available free of charge, and aims to develop the skills needed to conceptualize, design and deliver responsible marketing communications.

From micro-enterprises to large multinational companies, nearly all businesses use marketing in some form to sell their products or services. However, in a world where good governance and consumer trust are increasingly important, there is a greater expectation from consumers for brands to communicate transparently about their operations and product offering. This interactive e-course serves to encourage ethical marketing solutions as better, more effective forms of advertising.

“We are proud to launch the EMA on the ICC Academy’s digital learning platform,” said Daniel Kok, general manager of the ICC Academy. “We believe that formal training is essential to create high industry standards and practice. Our aim for this e-course is to establish a foundation in marketing for businesses across all markets.”

The EMA builds on decades of expertise and is designed for marketers, advertising agencies, self-regulatory organizations and universities and expands on a program initially developed with the renowned international business school, INSEAD.

“The ICC Code provides globally applicable road signs for marketing practice, which help build confidence in business. This e-course brings the Code guidance to life with the aid of practical industry examples,” said Brent Sanders, assistant general counsel at Microsoft and chair of the ICC Commission on Marketing and Advertising, who also chairs USCIB’s Marketing and Advertising Committee. “We recognize the invaluable contributions of self-regulatory and partner organisations across the globe in developing this interactive course that we believe will reinforce the Code’s effectiveness.”

Comprising six lessons, the two-hour interactive e-course:

  • covers ICC Code basics
  • provides an overview of the importance of responsible advertising
  • explains responsible marketing principles relating to customers, society and competitors, and
  • delivers insights on digital marketing and advertising.

Each section of the course incorporates video examples, structured learning, self-assessments, a virtual coach and valuable case studies to fully understand the principles at the heart of global advertising codes, which are applicable across every industry.

“The ICC Code provides direction for legal and honest marketing communications – qualities that are critical for marketers to build consumer trust and brand loyalty,” said Raelene Martin, policy manager at ICC . “This e-course demonstrates, in practical terms, how the Code’s principles and provisions can be applied in everyday practice when developing marketing campaigns. We are confident that this e-course will be a key resource to help marketers employ today’s and tomorrow’s most innovative techniques to market their products and services.”

Professionals hoping to demonstrate their commitment to the practice of ICC Code on responsible Marketing and Advertising are invited to take the EMA certification exam for a nominal fee.

Click here to learn more about the ICC Academy’s brand-new EMA e-course.

USCIB attends Business “Talanoa Dialogue” to Advance Climate Policy Implementation

Published on February 6, 2018
Tomasz Chruszczow, Climate Champion, Poland makes remarks

The International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) convened a business workshop under the UNFCCC Talanoa Dialogue process last week. The day-long meeting at ICC Headquarters in Paris brought business leaders together with influential government representatives leading the UNFCCC negotiations to discuss where business can contribute and strengthen implementation of national and international climate policy.

The Talanoa Dialogue, previously referred to as the Facilitative Dialogue, aims to overview collaborative action by governments, business and others to move the global climate agenda. A year-long process of discussions, consultations, events and expert inputs that will culminate at the 24th Conference of Parties in Poland, the Talanoa Dialogue is the first time business and other stakeholder inputs are to be mainstreamed into the UNFCCC deliberations.  ICC serves as the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Focal Point for business and industry, and has represented global business in the UN climate deliberations since 1993.

Tomasz Chruszczow,  climate champion, Poland, opened the meeting with a plea for business involvement, stating, “Business creates jobs, makes investment decisions. We need business to solve the challenges ahead in the transition towards a low-carbon economy.”  Phil Kucharski, ICC’s chief operating officer announced that ICC would make an organization-wide commitment to both the Paris Agreement and to inform the Talanoa Dialogue.

The Talanoa Dialogue is a process led by Fiji to invite and gather information, examples and discussion on 3 questions relating to the UNFCCC, Paris Agreement and the need for additional greenhouse gas reductions, resilience, funding and technology cooperation:

-Where are We?

-Where are We Going?

-How Do we Get There?

“While the Talanoa questions appear very basic, business will re-frame them to be relevant to private sector investment and implementation, and then bring forward value-added information and recommendations in response,” stated Norine Kennedy, who leads USCIB’s work on climate change, energy and the environment. Other USCIB members attending this workshop included Nick Campbell, Arkema and Justin Perrettson, Novozymes.

The discussion tackled concerns with assertions made by anti-business interests about “conflict of interest” as a justification to ban certain business sectors from observing the UNFCCC deliberations. Elina Bardram, head of Unit for International Climate Negotiations, European Commission stated that since the challenges involved in catalyzing climate action are daunting “for technical negotiators alone to tackle, so we need real world expertise – from business & other non-parties – included in the process.”

Other speakers included Deo Saran, Fiji’s ambassador to Belgium and permanent representative to the European Union and Brigitte Collet, France’s ambassador for Climate Change Negotiations, Renewable Energy & Climate Risk Prevention.

USCIB recently submitted recommendations to the UNFCCC on the importance of substantive business involvement in the UNFCCC going forward. USCIB will work closely with ICC in future Talanoa Dialogue meetings, and will consult its members as it prepares USCIB contributions to the Talanoa Dialogue scoping exercise en route to the next UNFCCC Conference of Parties in Katowice, Poland in December.