USCIB Vice President Shaun Donnelly has recently co-authored a new report on commercial diplomacy under the auspices of the American Academy of Diplomacy (AAD), a prestigious group of leading former senior U.S. government diplomats. Donnelly, like former USCIB President and current USCIB Board Vice Chair Tom Niles, was elected to AAD membership after retiring from a long career as a Foreign Service Officer at the U.S. Department of State.
Over the past two years, Donnelly has co-led, along with retired Ambassador and former Acting Director General of the Foreign Commercial Service Chuck Ford, AAD work on two reports covering U.S. government support (focused on Department of Commerce, Department of State and U.S. embassies and consulates abroad) to assist U.S. business win sales, contracts, investment opportunities and other deals against increasingly strong foreign competition, often benefiting from much more effective advocacy and support programs from competitor governments.
The original report Support for American Jobs, Part I from March 2016 has now been supplemented with Part II from June 2017, which goes into further detail, at the request of the Commerce and State Departments, on three specific issues, including a detailed analysis of the commercial diplomacy programs of leading competitor governments.
“The “Executive Report” cover document addressed to leaders in the Trump administration paints a clear picture of foreign governments stepping up their games in support of their own companies, large and small, and suggests ways the new administration might be able to launch a major commercial diplomacy initiative do the same to help U.S. companies win on increasingly competitive international battlefields,” said Donnelly.
Donnelly and his AAD colleagues will be meeting with administration and congressional leaders over the coming weeks, seeking increased awareness of and action on the issue. One of the potential merits of the nexus of commercial diplomacy issues is that it avoids some of the contentious atmosphere that surrounds U.S. trade policy debates (e.g. NAFTA, Trans Pacific Partnership, steel, World Trade Organization, etc.) and simply focuses on how the U.S. government might be better able to help our companies (and thereby our workers, shareholders and communities) win contracts, sales and deals and whatever trade policies the U.S. government is pursuing.
If you or colleagues at your organization have questions or would like to discuss the reports or commercial diplomacy in general, or if you’d like to help move these issues forward, feel free to contact Donnelly at sdonnelly@uscib.org.
Washington, D.C., July 17, 2017 – The United States Council for International Business (USCIB), which represents America’s top global companies and helps exporters of all sizes do business across borders, is encouraged that the objectives for modernization of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) released by the office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) today cover many of the issues proposed in USCIB’s 
While the conceptual phase of the Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS) Process has been accomplished, it is now crucial to monitor its implementation and to alleviate some of the overly burdensome effects of the BEPS Project. In light of this, the International Chamber of Commerce, Business at OECD (BIAC) and BusinessEurope organized a discussion on June 30 in Munich, Germany on tax policy issues, with the aim to facilitate cross border trade by reducing double taxation, simplifying tax rules, strengthening tax payers´ rights, fostering a growth oriented tax policy and increasing tax certainty.
The markets of Southeast Europe are investing in infrastructure and market development, representing an opportunity for U.S. companies to increase sales and find a strategic foothold to grow in Europe. The region features strategic ports and bustling overland trade routes to established markets, and these individual markets are all heavily investing in infrastructure growth and market development.
With widespread praise over the value of apprenticeships in lieu of a traditional four-year college experience, President Donald Trump and Labor Secretary Alexander Acosta have launched a series of initiatives that call on Congress to pass reforms expanding apprenticeships and to raise awareness about the viable career paths apprenticeships can offer. Apprenticeships have even become a priority for the B20 and G20 leaders.
With the Trump administration having served notice of its intention to modernize the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), USCIB has been advocating for modernization of certain aspects of NAFTA through op-eds, testimonies and meetings. Most recently, USCIB Vice President for Trade and Finance Shaun Donnelly presented USCIB views at the “NAFTA Testimony” hearings held on June 27 at the International Trade Commission (ITC). While held at the ITC, USTR was running the three days of public hearings. Staff from Commerce, State, Treasury, Department of Homeland Security, and Agriculture also sat on the panel and joined in questioning presenters.
As an increasing number of multilateral organizations consider proposals to keep business out of policy deliberations, USCIB met with Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for International Organizations (IO) Affairs Nerissa Cook on June 26 to encourage the administration to implement a consistent pro-business access policy in multilateral forums and to build on existing positive interactions between the UN and U.S. business.