Corporate Responsibility and Labor Affairs Archives

USCIB’s “International Business” Summer 2017 Issue

Published on August 15, 2017

USCIB’s “International Business” Summer 2017 issue is now live!

The Summer 2017 issue features USCIB President and CEO Peter M. Robinson‘s column on “Why International Organizations Matter to Your Business” as well as articles on developments in the B20, NAFTA and the UN high level political forum and the sustainable development agenda, plus news from our global network–Business at OECD, the International Organization of Employers and the International Chamber of Commerce.

“International Business,” USCIB’s quarterly journal, provides essential insight into major trade and investment topics, a high-level overview of USCIB policy advocacy and services, USCIB member news and updates from our global business network.

Subscribe to USCIB’s International Business Magazine

Subscriptions to “International Business” are available free upon request to representatives of USCIB member organizations. Contact us to subscribe.

Non-members may subscribe to “International Business” and other USCIB print publications at an annual rate of $50 (U.S.) for domestic delivery, or $75 for overseas delivery. Contact us to subscribe. USCIB’s annual report, studies from the United States Council Foundation and related publications are included with your paid subscription.

Our free electronic newsletter, “International Business Weekly,” provides regular updates on USCIB’s major activities and priorities. Click here to view a sample issue. Click here to subscribe.

We welcome outside submissions and inquiries regarding our publications – send them to news@uscib.org.

We welcome advertising in International Business magazine — special discounted rates for USCIB member organizations! Contact Kira Yevtukhova (kyevtukhova@uscib.org) for more information.

USCIB in the News: Bloomberg Covers USCIB Work on Labor

Published on August 11, 2017

White HouseAs the White House continues to discuss appropriations, the union umbrella group AFL-CIO, in partnership with USCIB, is targeting the Senate in search of a bipartisan group of lawmakers to champion the Department of Labor’s (DOL) Bureau of International Labor Affairs, as reported by Bloomberg BNA. This comes during discussions between the White House and a House appropriations panel to eliminate a grant program designed to eradicate labor abuses overseas.

“I think that type of outreach can only help bring attention, with leading U.S. business speaking up and engaging directly, it can only help,” said Gabriella Rigg Herzog, USCIB’s vice president for corporate responsibility and labor affairs, as quoted by Bloomberg BNA. “USCIB will continue to speak out on this matter and seek ways to bring attention to this.”

USCIB CEO and President Peter Robinson also met with Labor Secretary Alexander Acosta earlier this year about the importance of a fully funded ILAB. Additionally, USCIB submitted a joint letter with AFL-CIO earlier this year to the House Committee on Appropriations to continue funding ILAB’s and the Department of State’s Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor’s grants and programs.

To read the full article on Bloomberg BNA, click here. Please note, Bloomberg BNA is available via subscription.

ICC Advocates for Women Empowerment Through Technology

Published on July 21, 2017

The annual UN High Level Political Forum wrapped up last week having measured progress and implementation of the UN Sustainable Development Goals in the past two years. USCIB was on the ground during Agriculture and Food Day, which focused on Goal 2-Ending Hunger, as well as the UN SDG Business Forum, which focused on business support among all 17 SDG’s.  SDG 5 aims to achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls and calls for enhances use of enabling technology –information and communications technologies (ICT’s) in particular—to promote the empowerment of women.  For many women around the world, ICT’s can be leveraged for personal security, better access to education and jobs, financial inclusion and access to basic healthcare information. But benefits such as these rely on women having meaningful access to ICT which can be facilitated or prevented by several factors, including affordability, relevant content, skills and security.

To help turn commitment into action, the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) partnered with UN Women – the global champion for gender equality – to host a side-event during the HLPF.  The event, Accelerating Women’s Economic Empowerment to Achieve the 2030 Agenda, showcased the global efforts stakeholders have embarked on to bring women’s economic empowerment to the forefront of all the SDG targets.

“Through innovation, investment and development of products and services, the private sector plays an important role in advancing gender equality and improving the lives of women,” said Barbara Wanner USCIB vice president for ICT Policy. ICC highlighted several private sector initiatives during the side-event that are catalyzing women’s economic empowerment in developed and developing countries and presented the role of ICT’s in advancing the SDG’s.

Participants included contributors to the UN Secretary General High-Level Panel for Women’s Economic Empowerment and representatives from the governments of the United Kingdom and Costa Rica, UN Women, the International Labor Organization, ICC Secretary General John Danilovich, and Carolyn Nguyen of Microsoft who is also vice-chair of the ICC Commission on the Digital Economy.

For additional information on this event, please visit ICC’s website.

USCIB Highlights Business Role at UN Sustainable Development Meetings

Published on July 21, 2017
ICC Secretary General John Danilovich opens the UN SDG Business Forum

The UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDG’s) were created to measure progress and achievements towards a sustainable future through a series of 17 goals adopted by the UN General Assembly under the moniker Agenda 2030.  During this year’s annual UN High-Level Political Forum, held from July 10 – 19 at UN headquarters in New York, the UN Secretariat worked with member states to discuss paths to implementation and to track progress on the SDGs. USCIB and its members were on the ground during the HLPF highlighting the role of engaging all business sectors to advancing environmental, economic and social cooperation for the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

USCIB Vice President for Product Policy and Innovation Mike Michener supported USCIB’s longtime partner, the International Agri-Food Network (IAFN), on their event focusing on SDG2, Ending Hunger, during their side-event, Agriculture and Food Day on July 13. IAFN partnered with leading organizations to host this event to celebrate, discuss, negotiate, analyze, and brainstorm around the role of the agricultural and food sector in relation to the implementation of the SDGs. Agriculture and Food Day summarized the importance of targeting the agricultural sector and food issues to reach the SDGs by 2030. IAFN has been a consistent champion for a stand-alone goal on sustainable agriculture and food security.

However, “solutions cannot address just one goal, but must look to make a difference to several at once,” noted Michener.  “The purpose of Agriculture and Food Day was to examine how focusing on agricultural and food policy could achieve not only Goal 2 but make substantive contributions to the achievement of the other 16 goals.  Investments made in agriculture — the dominant occupation for the world’s poorest people — can accomplish much beyond Goal 2, including improvements in health, incomes, trade, infrastructure, and the environment,” he said.

USCIB policy experts and members also joined the SDG Business Forum on July 18, the first business-organized meeting held in the UN’s General Assembly Hall. Speakers from the UN, governments, NGOs and business discussed private sector investment, information sharing and public-private partnership to take forward the 17 SDGs.  The Forum was organized by the Global Business Coalition for 2030, a coalition of major business organizations and the UN Global Compact, facilitated by the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC).

Speaking to the HLPF, USCIB Vice President for Strategic International Engagement, Energy and Environment Norine Kennedy stated, “Innovation, infrastructure, economic growth and empowerment and good governance are the four inter-linked cornerstones for all 17 SDGs for business. Therefore it is crucial to consult with private sector groups at the national and regional level to develop enabling frameworks for business actions to advance the SDGs,” she said. Over 40 countries submitted national reports this year on their progress towards the SDGs.

Many of the speakers echoed the sentiment that neither the SDG’s nor the wider 2030 Agenda can be achieved without active participants of non-state actors, including business and industry, to drive  inclusive economic growth and prosperity.

In his remarks to the HLPF, ICC Secretary General John Danilovich noted, “There can be no doubt that the private sector means business when it comes to the SDG’s. Since their inception, I’ve said the SDG’s should be known as the BDG’s, the Business Development Goals, and that’s because their achievement represents a clear economic imperative. Business engagement on the UN SDG’s is not only a powerful way to enhance society’s trust but also a great business opportunity. Achieving the SDG’s opens up $12 trillion in market opportunity in sectors such as food, energy, health and cities.”

USCIB member KPMG’s Nick Chism, deputy head of Global Sales and Markets and global chair of Infrastructure, Government & Healthcare, discussed the importance of creating business-friendly environment and opportunities, indicating that enabling environments will lead to more private sector investment.

For this year’s HLPF, USCIB members, including Bechtel, Cargill, Citi, Hilton, Monsanto, Novozymes and Pirelli, added new examples of actions to advance the SDGs to USCIB’s Businessfor2030 web platform.

USCIB’s Vice President for ICT Policy Barbara Wanner also attended an event, Accelerating Women’s Economic Empowerment to Achieve the 2030 Agenda, which was organized by ICC and UN Women – the global champion for gender equality. For many women around the world, ICT’s can be leveraged for personal security, better access to education and jobs, financial inclusion and access to basic healthcare information. But benefits such as these rely on women having meaningful access to ICT which can be facilitated or prevented by several factors, including affordability, relevant content, skills and security. The event showcased the global efforts stakeholders have embarked on to bring women’s economic empowerment to the forefront of all the SDG targets.

“Through innovation, investment and development of products and services, the private sector plays an important role in advancing gender equality and improving the lives of women,” said Wanner.

ICC highlighted several private sector initiatives during the side-event that are catalyzing women’s economic empowerment in developed and developing countries and presented the role of ICT’s in advancing the SDG’s. For additional information on this event, please visit ICC’s website.

USCIB Roundtable Explores Promise of Apprenticeships

Published on July 21, 2017
L-R: Ronnie Goldberg (USCIB), John Ladd (US Department of Labor), Peter Robinson (USCIB), Shea Gopaul (Global Apprenticeship Network)

Apprenticeships play a crucial role in supporting the development of business-ready skills for youth and in realizing goals of inclusive economic growth and an equitable transition to a more sustainable world. In light of this, The USCIB Foundation, which is the educational and research arm of USCIB, partnered with Citi and the Global Apprenticeship Network (GAN) to organize a roundtable on July 20 in New York focused on apprenticeship models and practice in the U.S. The roundtable included representatives of approximately 25 companies who are either actively implementing apprenticeship programs or are interested in getting started.  John Ladd, the administrator for the Office of Apprenticeship of the U.S. Department of Labor (USDOL) joined the meeting.

John Ladd, administrator for the Office of Apprenticeship of the U.S. Department of Labor, gave remarks at the meeting

Ladd, who gave keynote remarks, discussed the context of what is driving interest in apprenticeships in the United States. “It would have been hard to imagine this conversation happening 10 years ago,” said Ladd. What changed? In particular, Ladd noted, unemployment is decreasing yet millions are still underemployed or unemployed and there is a clear mismatch between employers with jobs that have certain skills requirements and people in the sidelines who don’t yet have those skills. To address these challenges, employers – in partnership with government and educational institutions like community colleges – have identified apprenticeships as an effective means to help provide a path to employment for workers and to fill their own hiring needs with workers with the right skills for their jobs. The Executive Order on apprenticeships recently signed by President Donald Trump provides a framework for the key role USDOL will play in supporting business in this key area.

The hour-long breakout session led to a collaborative discussion among companies, nonprofits and NGO’s in attendance on both solutions and common challenges that need to be addressed, such as the need to educate students, communities and families about the benefits of apprenticeships in lieu of 2-year or 4-year post-secondary options. Other challenges raised by participants included issues around the definitions of apprenticeships as well as the need to create technological solutions and compelling marketing schemes that will resonate with millennials. Many participants agreed on the important role of government, both local and national, as a convener, citing the United Kingdom as a good role model for public private partnership in enabling successful apprenticeship programs.

“It’s very clear that we’re preaching about benefits of apprenticeships to the converted,” said USCIB’s Senior Counsel Ronnie Goldberg during her concluding remarks and summary of the roundtable. “We must now leverage the enthusiasm and expertise as evidenced in this workshop to drive positive change within our companies and communities. Apprenticeships will enable young people to have jobs and a career, but also provide companies with talent for the future.”

The event was hosted by the Citi Foundation and attended by companies such as Hilton, Nestle, IBM, Bechtel and Microsoft.

Historic Business Meeting at the UN Advances the Sustainable Development Goals

Published on July 18, 2017
ICC Secretary General John Danilovich addresses participants at the Sustainable Development Goals Business Forum during the UN High Level Political Forum

USCIB members joined today’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) Business Forum (live now on UN TV) during the High Level segment of the UN High Level Political Forum (HLPF) to highlight the role of business in advancing environmental, economic and social cooperation for the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.  At this first business-organized meeting in the UN’s General Assembly Hall, speakers from the UN, governments, NGOs and business discussed private sector investment, information sharing and public-private partnership to take forward the 17 SDGs.  The SDG Business Forum was organized by the Business Coalition for 2030, a coalition of major business organizations and the UN Global Compact, facilitated by the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC).

This year’s HLPF, from July 10 – 19, review and deliberations focused on SDGs on innovation and infrastructure, as well as food security, gender equality, health and oceans.  Speaking to the HLPF, USCIB Vice President for Energy and Environment Norine Kennedy stated, “Innovation, infrastructure, economic growth and empowerment and good governance are the four inter-linked cornerstones for all 17 SDGs for business.”  Kennedy also emphasized the importance of consulting with private sector groups at the national and regional level to develop enabling frameworks for business actions to advance the SDGs. Over 40 countries submitted national reports this year on their progress towards the SDGs.

In his remarks to the HLPF, ICC Secretary General John Danilovich noted that after two years of implementation, “the SDGs have been embraced by companies of all sectors and sizes as ‘Business Development Goals.’”

For this year’s HLPF, USCIB members, including Bechtel, Cargill, Citi, Hilton, Monsanto, Novozymes and Pirelli, added new examples of their actions to advance the SDGs to USCIB’s Businessfor2030 web platform.

For more information on USCIB’s SDG Working Group and Advocacy, please contact Norine Kennedy or Gabriella Rigg Herzog.

USCIB has been on the ground during the HLPF for the past two weeks, including supporting an International Agri-Food Network event on Agriculture and Food last week.

2017 USCIB International Leadership Award Dinner

USCIB is delighted to honor Ajay Banga, president and chief executive officer of MasterCard. Each year this gala event attracts several hundred industry leaders, government officials and members of the diplomatic community to celebrate open markets and the recipient of USCIB’s highest honor.

Established in 1980, USCIB’s International Leadership Award is presented to a senior business executive who has made significant policy contributions to world trade and investment, and to improving the global competitive framework in which American business operates. Join us for what will be a truly memorable evening!

USCIB Foundation to Host Event on Apprenticeships

Published on June 30, 2017

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.

Given the role that apprenticeships play in supporting the development of business-ready skills for youth and in realizing goals of inclusive economic growth and an equitable transition to a more sustainable world, The USCIB Foundation, which is the educational and research arm of USCIB, has partnered with Citi and the Global Apprenticeship Network (GAN) to organize a roundtable discussion focused on apprenticeship models and practice in the U.S.

The roundtable will include representatives of approximately 25 companies who are either actively implementing apprenticeship programs or are interested in getting started.  John Ladd, the administrator for the Office of Apprenticeship of the U.S. Department of Labor, will join the meeting.

Our partners in this event include:

  • The Global Apprentice Network (GAN), a business-driven alliance with the overarching goal of encouraging and linking business initiatives on skills and employment opportunities for youth – notably through apprenticeships.
  • Citigroup, committed to making a difference in youth unemployment, recently announced a global expansion of the Pathways to Progress initiative led by a Citi Foundation investment of $100 million to connect 500,000 young people, ages 16-24, to training and jobs over the next three years.