News Stories Archives

USCIB Gathers Stakeholders to Discuss E-Commerce Framework

Published on August 7, 2018

On July 31 and August 1, USCIB teamed up with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce to host the second in a series of meetings tied to e-commerce and the work being undertaken by the World Customs Organization (WCO). Dubbed “Industry Days,” these meetings included robust participation from both private sector and public sector representatives from multiple U.S. government agencies aimed at continuing the established dialogue on the WCO’s E-Commerce Framework of Standards (FoS).  Last week’s meetings were conducted in a small group fashion, which were stakeholder specific (i.e., carriers, customs brokers, e-payment, marketplaces and vendors).

Per the WCO, “The Framework of Standards is intended for Customs administrations wishing to develop legislative and operational frameworks for cross-border e-commerce.” In June, the WCO Council endorsed the draft FoS that included an introduction, 15 Standards and related introductions, as well as a U.S. tabled Resolution. In addition, the Council approved a one-year extension of the E-Commerce Working Group as well as a draft Work Plan noting the need for flexibility with respect to timelines and adherence. The next meeting of the WCO’s E-Commerce Working Group will take place in October.

Currently, the U.S. government and other WCO Member administrations are working to develop and  provide inputs on such intersessional topics as Definitions, Work Plan, and Data Elements. These “Industry Day” meetings are critical to the development of the U.S. government – one government – position, and provide the opportunity for private sector stakeholders to advance general and specific comments and concerns regarding aspects of the FoS, topic specific questions (e.g., Flow Charts, Data and Data Privacy, risks, etc.,) as well as overall views related to e-commerce.

“The purpose of these meetings was to bring together relevant intermediaries to discuss and gather perspectives in efforts to assist in USG policy and position development,” said Megan Giblin who leads USCIB’s work on customs and trade facilitation.  “Overall the meetings were successful and brought together USG agencies including: Department of Homeland Security, Customs and Border Protection, Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, U.S. Department of Treasury, Department of Energy, Department of State, U.S. Postal Service, Federal Trade Commission as well as many private sector stakeholders including many who are new to the WCO E-Commerce Framework of Standards.”

US and Japan Commit to Open, Reliable and Secure Internet

Published on July 31, 2018

At a recent policy cooperation dialogue on the internet economy between the United States and Japan, the two nations emphasized their continued commitment to an open, interoperable, reliable, and secure Internet. This dialogue served as the ninth meeting of the U.S.-Japan with regards to the internet economy and took place in Washington, DC, on July 23 and 24. The dialogue included discussions with private sector representatives from both countries on fifth generation mobile technologies (5G) and secure future Internet infrastructure, promoting cross-border data flows, international harmonization of regulatory frameworks and privacy, as well as ICT policy issues related to trending technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI) and the Internet of Things (IoT).

USCIB Vice President for ICT Policy Barbara Wanner spoke on a panel on the Prospect for Future Internet Policy Issues, alongside representatives from the Information Technology Industry Council, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and Access Partnership. “U.S. and Japanese business and government have much in common with respect to opportunities and challenges in the digital economy, so collaborative approaches are very important going forward to ensure that we all reap the extraordinary economic, commercial, and societal benefits,” said Wanner.

Wanner also emphasized the need to work together in multilateral organizations and multistakeholder organizations especially in light of several countries continuing to press for government regulation of the internet by bringing Internet governance and digital economy issues under the UN or its specialized agencies. “This is not the best approach given the dynamic nature of technology development,” warned Wanner. “Heavy-handed regulations could damper this dynamism. Additionally this may open the door to efforts by some countries to use the Internet for surveillance of their citizens and possibly even censorship.”

ICANN Makes Progress on GDPR-Compliant Framework for Access to Domain Name Data

Published on July 6, 2018

USCIB Vice President for ICT Policy Barbara Wanner played a leadership role representing USCIB commercial interests at the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers’ ICANN 62 Policy Forum, which wrapped up on June 28 in Panama City, Panama. The four-day meeting brought together participants from business, government, civil society, and the technical community from throughout the world to focus on policy priorities for the Internet domain name system.

This year’s forum was especially timely, coming on the heels of ICANN’s May 17 issuance of a temporary specification for global top-level domain (gTLD) registration data. This action would enable “tiered access” to domain name registrant data, ensuring that ICANN and the industry of more than 1,000 gTLD registries and registrars comply with existing ICANN contractual requirements concerning the collection of registration data and meet the new EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which went into effect on May 25.

Also in the spotlight was ICANN’s proposed framework to enable third-party access to non-public domain registration data for legitimate law enforcement, consumer protection, brand management and intellectual property protection purposes. The General Names Supporting Organization Council, ICANN’s policy making body, spent virtually the entire forum developing a charter for an “expedited policy development process” (EPDP), which aims to replace the temporary specification within one year. Wanner noted that the council made significant progress and set an ambitious timeline to complete the charter and launch the EPDP by the end of July. “The charter ultimately will define the scope of the policymaking process,” she said.

Wanner also highlighted that notwithstanding the intense focus on GDPR/data access, the ICANN community realized another important milestone at the policy forum. The Cross-Community Working Group on Enhancing ICANN Accountability completed its work on the second phase of issues related to the March 2016 transition from the U.S. government to ICANN stakeholders of oversight of certain domain name functions. “The hours of tireless volunteer input very competently moved forward important community work on the IANA transition, representing a notable achievement for ICANN’s multi-stakeholder process,” Wanner said.

Click below to view a video introduction to Wanner and the other members of the Commercial Stakeholder Group.

USCIB Provides Input to OECD’s Work on Digital Economy

Published on May 29, 2018

USCIB’s Vice President for ICT Policy Barbara Wanner, along with several USCIB members, participated in the May 14-18 meetings of the OECD’s Committee on Digital Economy Policy (CDEP) and its Working Parties, which focused on advancing the OECD’s Going Digital project on the digital transformation of the economy, rolling out plans for a Global Forum on Digital Security for Prosperity, and featuring a special Roundtable discussion on privacy interoperability. The 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 meetings earlier this month in Paris, USCIB members, participating under the auspices of Business at OECD (BIAC), made numerous interventions throughout the five days of meetings, focused on elements of the Going Digital Project, such as projects on Artificial Intelligence, Online Platforms, and E-Commerce. In particular, BIAC Vice Chair Rich Clarke (AT&T) played an important behind-the-scenes role building consensus on two important telecommunications initiatives, and Carolyn Nguyen (Microsoft) offered her company’s perspective in the privacy interoperability roundtable.

Wanner was on the microphone for BIAC expressing business interest and support for the Global Forum on Digital Security for Prosperity. “As the OECD’s Going Digital Project advances, the business community greatly appreciates the opportunities to provide input,” said Wanner. “We look forward to continuing to work with the OECD, through BIAC, to provide value and ensure the success of the project as well as the upcoming Global Forum on Digital Security for Prosperity.”

Mulligan Joins BIAC to Push for Business Priorities at OECD

Published on May 4, 2018

USCIB Senior Vice President for Policy and Government Affairs Rob Mulligan was in Paris the last week of April attending Business at OECD (BIAC) and OECD Trade Committee meetings, which included dialogues with several OECD officials, including Director of the OECD Trade Directorate Ken Ash, OECD Deputy Secretary General Mari Kiviniemi, Head of the OECD Investment Division Ana Novik, and Head of the OECD Services Trade Division John Drummond, among others.

“BIAC’s meetings were integral in getting the business community on the same page regarding several issues, including possible accession to the OECD by Argentina, Brazil, Peru, Croatia, Romania and Bulgaria, BIAC’s upcoming work with B20 Argentina on joint meetings later this month in Paris, as well as the OECD release of a Trade Facilitation publication this summer,” noted Mulligan.

According to Mulligan, BIAC members also discussed BIAC talking points on the OECD’s draft Program of Work and Budget for 2019-20 (PWB), providing suggestions for inclusion of services trade, de-minimis, overcapacity, digital trade, cybersecurity, customs simplification for SMEs, trade distortions, international regulatory cooperation, and government procurement.  These were in addition to the points based on the BIAC Trade as a Priority for All paper approved by the Committee last year. At a subsequent OECD Trade Committee Meeting later that week, member countries provided feedback to the secretariat about the draft PWB and BIAC, represented by its Chair Cliff Sosnow, noting the areas it would like to see the committee focus on during this cycle, which aligned with many of the areas BIAC had suggested.  However, BIAC noted that the PWB did not seem to include further work on localization requirements and state-owned enterprises that continue to be key areas of concern for its members and encouraged the OECD to include this in their work plans going forward.

Mulligan also had the opportunity to attend the BIAC Roundtable on Data Localization, Digital Trade and Market Openness which enabled a dialogue among the 25 people around the table. Ash, who recently met with the Japanese business group Keidanren, emphasized his desire to understand the realities of business and digital trade issues and noted Keidanren’s plans to make digital trade a focus when they host G20/B20 in 2019.

Mulligan then joined Pat Ivory of the Irish Business Federation Ibec, in their capacities as vice chairs of the BIAC Trade Committee to provide overviews on the BIAC digital trade priorities.

“Members are increasingly voicing concerns about data localization requirements related to the impact on cybersecurity and the conflicts they can cause for highly regulated industries,” stressed Mulligan. “The impact of rapidly changing technology and the need for regulators to take approaches to digital trade that do not end up restricting trade, stifling innovation, and undercutting economic growth.”

BIAC members noted challenges they deal with when assessing where to do business and suggested that localization requirements that can increase security risks in some developing countries and can make it less likely for them to do business there.

USCIB Supports US Candidate for Leadership Position at ITU

Published on April 9, 2018
Eric Loeb (AT&T), chair of USCIB’s ICT Policy Committee and Doreen Bogdan-Martin

USCIB and the U.S. International Telecommunication Union Association (USITUA) jointly organized a special roundtable discussion on April 5 in Washington, DC to hear a brief of Doreen Bogdan-Martin’s candidacy for director of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) Telecommunication Development Bureau (BDT).

The Roundtable attracted nearly 40 participants from both trade associations, as well as from the U.S. Government and the Washington, DC diplomatic community.

The U.S. Government will formally deposit Bogdan-Martin’s candidature prior to the ITU Plenipotentiary (PP-18), which will take place in Dubai in October. Senior U.S. Government officials have already indicated that one of Washington’s leading goals at the PP-18 is to secure Bogdan-Martin’s election to this post, highlighting her track record with the ITU, including being the chief architect of the Global Symposium of Regulators, coordinating the UN Broadband Commission, and recently launching ITU’s new gender empowerment initiative, EQUALS.

“Doreen’s candidacy is significant because she is the only female candidate for this position,” said Barbara Wanner who leads USCIB’s work on ICT policy. “Importantly, she brings 20 years of experience at the ITU, include 14 years in the Telecommunication Development Bureau, most recently as the Chief of ITU Strategic Planning and Membership. USCIB members strongly support Doreen’s candidacy, knowing that she will pursue the development agenda in a manner that thoughtfully considers all stakeholders’ views.”

During the course of the roundtable last week, Bogdan-Martin noted that the two most significant obstacles to connecting the remaining 3.9 billion people in the world who are still offline are the still-high costs for services and devices, as well as the lack of relevant content to stimulate demand for access and online services. “I envisage the BDT redoubling its efforts on digital inclusion, which is at the core of the 2030 Agenda,” noted Bodgan-Martin. “Together we will make the ITU-D a thriving, forward-looking community of Members served by a BDT known for quality, relevance, and practical solutions.”

Election of the director of the ITU Telecommunication Development Bureau (BDT) will take place at the ITU Plenipotentiary in Dubai later this year (October 29-November 16, 2018).

ICANN Focuses on Compliance of Registration Data and Privacy

Published on March 19, 2018
Barbara Wanner, fourth from left, at ICANN 61 along with fellow ICANN Business Constituency Executive Committee members.:
Steve DelBianco (NetChoice); Phil Corwin (VeriSign); Claudia Selli (AT&T); Barbara Wanner (USCIB); Jimson Olufuye (AfICTA)

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), which is responsible for ensuring the security, stability and resilience of the domain name system (DNS), held its Community Forum in San Juan, Puerto Rico on March 10-15. The Forum attracted over 2,000 participants from business, government, civil society, and the technical community from 150 countries, including USCIB Vice President for ICT Policy Barbara Wanner. Over 300 sessions delved into a range of topics relating to the Internet’s addressing and identifier systems. Last year’s implementation of the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) drove discussions throughout the week-long meeting.

Wanner, who also serves as the business constituent representative to the Commercial Stakeholders Group (CSG), was able to provide greater input to policy discussions at the executive committee level on behalf of USCIB members and facilitated important meetings with senior ICANN officials and key constituencies.

The focus of the Forum was an ICANN interim model aimed at ensuring that ICANN and the industry of more than 1,000 generic top-level domain registries comply with existing ICANN requirements concerning the collection of registration data (known as the WHOIS database) as well as meet the EU’s privacy protection requirements. Business participants also surfaced a proposal to establish an accreditation mechanism to enable third party access to data for law enforcement, consumer protection, brand management and intellectual property protection purposes.

“The implications of the GDPR on ICANN’s WHOIS database policies dominated discussions throughout the week-long meetings,” commented Wanner. “The clock is running out on the May 25 implementation of the GDPR, so all stakeholders engaged in discussions with a sense of urgency,” she observed.

On March 8, ICANN proposed the so-called Calzone interim model, an approach that ICANN maintained endeavors to strike a balance between proposals put forward by various community stakeholders.

“Commercial business users raised concerns with the interim model, however, maintaining that it is overly broad in scope and does not sufficiently support legitimate public interests in allowing access to certain data for law enforcement, consumer protection and intellectual property protection,” commented Wanner.  “In order to gain access to this non-public data, business users proactively proposed a mechanism that would enable accredited users to gain access to the data they need to pursue legitimate business and public interests.”

Working through the business constituency and Commercial Stakeholder Group, USCIB will engage with other ICANN stakeholders in coming weeks to refine the accreditation model so it can be utilized when the GDPR formally goes into effect in late May.

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.

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.

IGF Discusses Gender, Trade, Digital Security and More

Published on January 3, 2018
Speakers from L-R: Heshadharani Poornima (India), Barbara Wanner (US Council for International Business), Jennifer Chung (DotAsia), Louise Marie Hurel (Gender Youth/Youth Observatory), Bruna Santos (Gender Youth/Youth Observatory, Brazil)

More than 2,000 stakeholders from business, government, civil society, the technical community, and academia gathered in Geneva, Switzerland December 18-21 for the 12th Internet Governance Forum (IGF). The four-day conference featured wide-ranging discussions under the overarching theme, “Shape Your Digital Future.” USCIB Members joined global business colleagues under the aegis of ICC-BASIS in urging that the IGF continue to serve as a forum for mulitstakeholder discussions about Internet governance issues and as an incubator of ideas and best practices about how to most effectively address opportunities and challenges in the digital ecosystem.

ICT Policy Committee Chair Eric Loeb, senior vice president, international external and regulatory affairs, AT&T, provided the business perspective on Internet governance issues in a special high-level thematic session, “Shaping our Future Digital Global Governance,” which officially opened the IGF. Paying tribute to the late Joseph Alhadeff, former USCIB board member and ICT Policy Committee vice chair, Loeb highlighted how Alhadeff approached Internet governance with collegiality, collaboration and empathy, with an eye to solving immediate problems but not losing sight of where we need to be. “In this spirit, the IGF facilitates working together across respective and varied interests to achieve progress and share issues,” said Loeb told the standing-room-only opening plenary.

USCIB members and USCIB Vice President, ICT Policy Barbara Wanner made important contributions on leading topics of this year’s nearly 200 IGF workshops. Wanner who spoke on the panel, “Navigating Gender and Youth Challenges: Telling Stories about Women, Technology, and Creation,” emphasized the role of both governments and business in ensuring that the digital gender divide is bridged.

“One of the largest barriers to many women and youth in terms of entering the digital system has to do with culture,” said Wanner. “A government cannot simply have on the books policies that ensure equal rights.  They have to follow up and see that the laws are properly implemented and effectively transcend cultural mores that can hold back women of all ages. I have been very inspired by the various initiatives pursued by USCIB members aimed at developing STEM skills and coding by young women to enable their involvement in the digital economy.  Going to the heart of my topic, though, I would say that business also is keenly aware of the importance of enabling generational exchange as a means of bringing more youth and women into the digital ecosystem.”

Additional topics discussed during the IGF included digital trade, artificial intelligence, cybersecurity and the “Internet of Things.” Additionally, the OECD’s Going Digital project was featured in a special session, which enabled USCIB members to reiterate points of support and concern offered by Business at OECD (BIAC) at the November meeting of the Committee on Digital Economy Policy.