USCIB’s Vice President for Investment and Financial Services Shaun Donnelly was leading the business voices at multiple events around the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development’s (OECD) Investment Week in Paris last week. Donnelly was the lead business speaker at the panel on “Is Investment Liberalization Shifting into Reverse?” at the OECD Global Forum on International Investment and the lead business respondent to presentations by academic experts on “Societal Benefits and Costs of Investment Treaties” at the OECD’s Third Annual Conference on Investment Treaties.
In both formal presentations, as well as in formal and informal interactions with government delegations from both OECD member countries and leading developing and emerging governments, Donnelly emphasized the importance of investment agreements, including strong enforcement provisions, to facilitate much needed Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) flows.
Per established OECD practice, Donnelly played a lead role in BIAC’s formal consultation, along with the parallel labor and civil society stakeholder groups, with the OECD’s Investment Committee on Wednesday, March 8. With investment agreements under attacks from some quarters, it is important for business to speak up these sorts or international fora, whether at OECD or elsewhere, on the importance of FDI for both the host economy and the home country and especially on the important role high standard investment agreements and strong enforcement provisions play in today’s global economy.
Senior investment policy experts from the State Department, U.S. Trade Representative and Treasury Department also participated in the meetings last week.
President Trump’s Administration has recently released a congressionally mandated annual report on the U.S. trade agenda, which re-examines the U.S.’s relationship with multilateral organizations and, in particular, targets the World Trade Organization (WTO). The report asserts that the U.S. has a right not to abide by WTO decisions that are not favorable to the U.S. trade agenda.
The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) is organizing a Global Anti-Corruption and Integrity Forum on March 30-31 in Paris, which will focus on integrity and anti-corruption. The Forum aims to bring together a diverse array of stakeholders from policy communities, the private sector, civil society and academia to discuss topics such as reducing the inequality gap, stimulating fair competition and economic growth as well as shaping a level playing field for business.
Landmark pact will reduce customs barriers and costs for U.S. exporters
ICC Secretary General John Danilovich on the importance of services to the American economy. Danilovich, who has served as U.S. ambassador to Brazil and Costa Rica, writes that “tit-for-tat trade responses sparked by new border taxes could come at a considerable cost for the U.S. services sector– and the growing number of Americans whose livelihoods depend on it. When it comes to trade policy, nostalgia is no substitute for the realities of today’s global economy.”
President Trump’s promise to rewrite the North American Free Trade Agreement is already rattling some companies and rippling across the Mexican economy. Growth in the country’s GDP is projected to slow to a crawl in 2017, according to the Wall Street Journal. Exports account for a third of the country’s economic activity, and some 80 percent of these go to the U.S.
A new report from the International Chamber of Commerce’s BASCAP (Business Action to Stop Counterfeiting and Piracy) initiative and the International Trademark Association (INTA) details the spiraling cost of global intellectual property rights abuses.