Information Communications and Technology Archives

USCIB Supports Candidacy of Doreen Bogdan-Martin for ITU Secretary General

Published on April 7, 2021
Doreen Bogdan-Martin
Source: US Mission to Geneva

Washington, D.C., April 1, 2021 — The U.S. Council for International Business (USCIB) expresses strong support for the candidacy of Doreen Bogdan-Martin to serve as the next Secretary General of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), as announced by Secretary of State Antony Blinken on March 31, 2021:

“The pandemic-related challenges we all have grappled with for more than a year have highlighted the importance of ensuring global connectivity and access to telecommunications/ICTs to promote economic and societal benefits,” said USCIB President and CEO Peter Robinson.

“We salute the competence and spirit with which Doreen Bogdan-Martin has tackled these issues as Director of the ITU’s Telecommunication Development Bureau during an especially trying time for the global community. And as a longtime proponent of gender equality and initiatives aimed at bridging the digital divide, she is, in our opinion, superbly qualified to lead the ITU into the future. We strongly endorse Ms. Bogdan-Martin’s candidacy for Secretary General.”

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. As the U.S. affiliate of the International Chamber of Commerce, the International Organization of Employers and Business at OECD (BIAC), USCIB provides business views to policy makers and regulatory authorities worldwide and works to facilitate international trade and investment. More at www.uscib.org.

USCIB Co-Hosts Seminar of Digital Issues in Brazil’s OECD Accession  

Published on March 24, 2021

USCIB joined with the U.S. Chamber’s U.S.-Brazil Business Council and Brazil’s National Industrial Confederation (CNI) to co-host an important seminar on Brazil’s accession to the OECD.

The seminar on March 18 on Digital Issues in Brazil’s OECD accession featured speakers from the Brazilian and U.S. governments, digital trade experts from the OECD Secretariat and the Business at OECD (BIAC) coalition, in which both CNI and USCIB are actively involved, as well as private sector representatives.

The virtual session, the second in an on-going series on various critical policy issues in Brazil’s OECD candidacy, drew over seventy-five participants from Brazil, the U.S., and beyond.

“We has an excellent introductory discussion of a wide range of digital issues, including privacy, Artificial Intelligence (AI), data localization, and intellectual property protections,” said USCIB Senior Advisor Shaun Donnelly, who co-chaired the session. “Clearly both the Brazilian government and our friends at CNI and across the Brazilian private sector are enthusiastic about the possibility of Brazil becoming a candidate to join the OECD. That OECD accession process is never an easy one; OECD standards are high. But because it is an important partner for the U.S. and for our member companies, we continue to play an active and constructive role in this process, both in various BIAC expert committees in Paris and in efforts like today’s seminar with our members and partners like CNI and the U.S. and Brazilian Governments.”

 

Digital Economy Architects to Keynote at Joint OECD, Business at OECD and USCIB Conference

Published on March 16, 2021

New York, N.Y., March 16, 2021 — For the past year, the COVID-19 pandemic has required us to conduct our lives virtually and has, subsequently, highlighted the relevance of the OECD’s Internet Policy Principles (IPPs). These principles call for a global free flow of information and services, multistakeholder participation, and cooperation to ensure Internet security and privacy. With these issues in mind, USCIB joined with the OECD and Business at OECD (BIAC) to organize a Digital Economy Conference focusing on “A Decade of OECD Internet Principles: Policy-Making in a Data-Driven World.” Key experts, such as MIT’s Daniel Weitzner, Microsoft’s Julie Brill, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Commerce Christopher Hoff, Ambassador David Gross of Wiley, and Sharri Clark from the White House, as well as OECD’s Andrew Wyckoff, among others, will discuss the evolving digital ecosystem, Artificial Intelligence (AI), government access to data, and challenges to both business and policymakers.

“The IPPs, adopted in 2011, have underpinned the OECD’s evolving work on digital economy issues in the past decade,” said USCIB Vice President for ICT Policy Barbara Wanner. “These themes have also been echoed in recent digital economy work of the United Nations, the UN Internet Governance Forum, and other multilateral bodies.”

The May 25 virtual conference, officially the “Joseph H. Alhadeff Digital Economy Conference,” will consider how the IPPs have been reflected in some of the OECD’s ground-breaking digital work – such as development of the AI Principles. Industry experts will also consider how the Principles may be employed to address challenges posed by the rapid pace of digital innovation and related changes to the digital ecosystem.

Registration is now open for this conference. Please contact Erin Breitenbucher to register: ebreitenbucher@uscib.org.

Members of the press and media are also welcome to register and join.

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. As the U.S. affiliate of the International Chamber of Commerce, the International Organization of Employers and Business at OECD (BIAC), USCIB provides business views to policy makers and regulatory authorities worldwide and works to facilitate international trade and investment. More at www.uscib.org.

Global Business Statement on Safeguarding International Data Flows

Published on January 13, 2021

USCIB joined dozens of global associations in a letter to the EU expressing concern to ongoing developments in the European Union on international data flows. The letter notes that international data flows are an integral pillar of global trade, and any disruption to their free flow constitutes a major challenge to every economic sector.

“The recent developments in the European Union are creating deep uncertainty throughout the world, as the wide geographic variety of co-signatories to this statement demonstrates,” emphasized USCIB Vice President for ICT Policy Barbara Wanner.

In addition, the repercussions of an unduly restrictive approach to data flows, the letter notes it will also hit hard more traditional European industries, as the recent BusinessEurope-led coalition statement underlines.

“We underline the importance of providing certainty for all businesses and their data transfers to third countries,” the letter notes. “Any disruption must be avoided in order to minimise negative economic consequences, particularly in the wake of the global COVID-19 crisis and the economic recovery phase that we will enter in 2021. Crucially, our organizations believe that this can be achieved while respecting European data protection law, if a pragmatic and flexible approach prevails.”

USCIB Announces 2021 Priority Issues for Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC)

Published on January 6, 2021

Washington D.C., January 5, 2020 — The United States Council for International Business (USCIB), which represents many of America’s leading global companies, appreciates and welcomes the committed partnerships that the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) has established with the private sector to address the many economic, trade and regulatory opportunities available to foster greater integration between APEC’s twenty-one member economies. Each year, USCIB issues a statement outlining priorities and recommendations that USCIB and its members would like to see advanced in that particular APEC year; we are pleased to announce and make available our 2021 APEC Priority Issues and Recommendations paper:

USCIB commends the leadership of Malaysia in 2020, particularly under the challenging circumstances of adjusting to virtual meetings in the face of an unprecedented global pandemic. Our members see the New Zealand host year as an important opportunity to continue essential work in APEC working groups and to set topics for major outcomes and deliverables. USCIB members are eager to learn more about key initiatives for New Zealand during its host year and how business can help achieve these initiatives. Further, USCIB members are looking forward to Thailand’s host year in 2022. We stand ready to provide relevant inputs into the establishment of goals and objectives. The policy priorities of USCIB reflect our longstanding and overarching objectives of promoting open markets, competitiveness and innovation, sustainable development, and corporate responsibility. The priorities and recommendations detailed in this document are practical recommendations that can be taken to address some of the challenges for governments and businesses in the APEC region.

There remain ongoing global business concerns that the U.S. government and APEC Business Advisory Council (ABAC) members should consider as they identify priorities for the upcoming year. USCIB members have identified key issues that are detailed in this paper. We view this APEC Priority Issues and Recommendations policy paper as a “living document”, which is updated on an annual basis at the time of the CEO Summit, and as necessary following Senior Official Meetings throughout the year. The priorities in this statement are not exhaustive, in many cases they are “living issues”, and we will continue to work with our members on emerging and developing issues. We would be pleased to address any questions and discuss any of these recommendations in greater detail.

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 the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC), the International Organization of Employers, and Business at OECD (known as BIAC), USCIB helps to provide 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.

Addressing Tax Challenges Arising from Digitalization of the Economy: USCIB Submits Comments to OECD

Published on December 16, 2020

Washington D.C., December 14, 2020 – The U.S. Council for International Business (USCIB), which represents many of America’s leading global companies, provided comments to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) in response to the OECD’s Public Consultation Request to its Reports on the Pillar One and Pillar Two Blueprints, which would develop coherent rules to address the tax challenges arising from the digitalization of the economy.

Among its recommendations, USCIB emphasized that the OECD rules should be developed with consideration of their potential impact on global growth and business investment decisions, and should be designed in a way to support the achievement of tax certainty for taxpayers and tax administrations and not be too complex or too onerous in compliance to discourage global investment. According to its comments, USCIB noted that the rules should also be based, to the maximum extent possible, on internationally accepted principles of taxation for coherency in their creation and consistency in their application.

For USCIB’s complete comments to the OECD, please click here.

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 the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC), the International Organization of Employers, and Business at OECD (known as BIAC), USCIB helps to provide 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.

USCIB Members Address Network Security During Crises, Environmental Sustainability at IGF

Published on November 18, 2020

The fifteenth Internet Governance Forum (IGF), which was held in two phases November 2 -November 17, featured expert commentary from USCIB members that addressed two of the key thematic pillars of this year’s event – trust and improving the environment. Chris Boyer (AT&T) moderated a USCIB-organized workshop, in which Kathryn Condello (Lumen) highlighted how business and government closely collaborated from the earliest days of the COVID-19 pandemic to ensure secure, stable and reliable connectivity and, in so doing, create a framework for trust in the online environment.

In another USCIB-organized workshop, Matt Peterson (Amazon) and Caroline Louveaux (Mastercard) described their respective companies’ efforts to leverage technologies and their networks to address the planet’s environmental challenges through such initiatives as Amazon’s “Climate Pledge Fund” and Mastercard’s “Priceless Planet Coalition.”

According to USCIB Vice President for ICT Policy Barbara Wanner, both USCIB workshops attracted thirty-five to fifty virtual attendees from stakeholder groups throughout the world and garnered praise for the relevance and insightfulness of speakers’ comments in view of the still-rampant pandemic and challenges to the global environment.

Under the overarching theme ‘’Internet for human resilience and solidarity,” the annual IGF was hosted virtually by the United Nations given COVID-related travel restrictions. Given its virtual nature, the IGF Secretariat estimated that the event brought together more than five thousand leaders and ‎stakeholders of all sectors and all parts of the world, to discuss the impact of the Internet on ‎our lives within four key thematic tracks: (1) Data; (2) Environment; (3) Inclusion and (4) Trust.‎ As mentioned, USCIB members chose to showcase their corporate expertise under the trust and environment themes in two of the more than 200 IGF workshops.

Carol Doran Klein Retires, USCIB Welcomes Rick Minor as New Tax Lead

Published on November 18, 2020
Carol Doran Klein
Carol Doran Klein

USCIB is pleased to announce that Richard Minor (who goes by Rick) has joined as its next International Tax Counsel upon Carol Doran Klein’s retirement.

“Carol has contributed immeasurably to the strengthening of the USCIB tax practice and we are grateful for her professional contributions and personal friendship over the last ten years,” said Peter Robinson, USCIB’s president and CEO. He added, “While we are saddened to see Carol go, Rick is a worthy successor and an excellent addition to the USCIB team. He brings a wealth of technical knowledge on international tax matters, experience in OECD tax policy and process, and a robust foreign government and European Commission network. I’m confident his expertise and international perspective will serve USCIB members well.”

Rick Minor
Rick Minor

Minor has deep experience in both the private and public sectors, having held senior tax roles with three large companies in Europe, in addition to serving as a Digital Policy Advisor to the Government of Luxembourg on a broad range of cross-border business issues with particular regard to EU data privacy, VAT and digital tax policy. His corporate background included positions as Vice President, Group Tax Counsel and Government Affairs for AOL Europe; Head of Tax, EMEA for ArcelorMittal; and Director of Tax, EMEA for Honeywell Europe. Minor also served as Director of International Cooperation and Business Investment for the North Carolina Department of Commerce, working to attract U.S. and foreign corporate investment to North Carolina. Minor got his bachelors at Duke University, his law degree at UNC-Chapel Hill and his LL.M. in tax at Georgetown. He began his career as an attorney specializing in international tax planning with global law firms in DC, Munich and London. Doran Klein and Minor served together on the OECD Technical Advisory Group (TAG) for VAT.

Minor assumes management of the USCIB Committee on Taxation, which promotes sound, appropriate and consistent international tax policy in the U.S. and overseas, including minimizing double taxation. The committee is chaired by Bill Sample, tax policy advisor at Microsoft Corporation, and encompasses leading tax professionals from USCIB member companies and organizations. The committee is especially active on OECD matters, in view of USCIB’s role as the American affiliate of Business at OECD (BIAC), and organizes a yearly conference bringing together USCIB members with top tax officials from the OECD and member governments.

USCIB Provides Feedback on AI to the National Institute of Standards and Technology

Published on October 21, 2020

As the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) works on its principles of explainable “Artificial Intelligence (AI),” USCIB welcomed an opportunity to submit comments on behalf of its members. The comments, sent to the NIST Director and Undersecretary of Commerce for Standards and Technology Dr. Walter Copan, draw from industry experience, as well as from USCIB’s direct input to the development of the OECD’s AI Principles through USCIB’s affiliation with Business at OECD (known as “BIAC”).

“NIST’s effort represents a positive first step in terms of grappling with the issue of AI explainability,” remarked USCIB Vice President for ICT Policy Barbara Wanner. “The draft, and NIST’s broader program to develop approaches to AI trustworthiness, should significantly contribute to the private and public sector’s understanding of the many considerations necessary to implement AI, while ultimately enabling broader, faster and more responsible use of AI. We believe that, to be most effective, humans and machines should collaborate, combining their respective strengths to provide sustainable value for consumers, businesses, governments and society.”

In its comments, USCIB also highlighted the work of USCIB members such as Facebook, Google, IBM and Microsoft within an Experts Group that developed the OECD’s AI Principles. The U.S. government also contributed actively to the development of the OECD principles, under the leadership of the State Department.  On May 22, 2019, the OECD’s 36 member countries, along with Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Peru, and Romania,  endorsed the OECD Council Recommendation on Artificial Intelligence. The principles contained in the recommendation were subsequently endorsed by the G20.

Hampl Discusses Role of Open Markets, Inclusive Multilateralism in COVID-19 Recovery

Published on September 30, 2020

USCIB Senior Director for Trade and Financial Services Eva Hampl provided a U.S. business perspective at the Joint Conference on Reviving the Global Economy by Opening Markets and Enhancing Cooperation. The event was co-organized by the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade (CCPIT) and the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) on September 28.  During her panel, Hampl discussed what USCIB has been focusing on to advance open markets and an economic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic.

“We have been active in all available forums to advocate that governments refrain from misusing the COVID-19 pandemic to adopt arbitrary, discriminatory or protectionist policies which only disrupt supply chains and put further strains on the economy – this also includes measures already in place that are now being justified by the pandemic,” said Hampl. “We consistently emphasize the crucial role of open trade and global value chains as fundamental drivers to recover from this global crisis.”

Hampl also discussed longer-term solutions, such as diversifying supply chains, so that global issues, such as a pandemic, do not endanger the reliable supply of necessary goods and services.

According to Hampl, the pandemic has highlighted the transformative power of digital technologies.

“Companies across all sectors stepped up to work closely with governments and other stakeholders to respond to urgent medical, economic and social needs by deploying and driving digital technology solutions,” said Hampl. “Looking ahead, digital technologies have the potential to shape the sustainable recovery from the pandemic. This also includes accelerating the digitization of government services such as licensing, permitting, tax collection and procurement.”

Hampl also emphasized the importance of global cooperation through multilateral institutions and discussed the role of inclusive multilateralism in the context of the COVID-19 outbreak.

“A COVID-19 response must be an ‘all hands on deck’ approach,” she noted. “When USCIB advocates for multilateralism, we mean multilateralism that promotes peace, cooperation and social justice, relies on effective and transparent multilateral bodies, advances collaborative approaches among states, encourages international dialogue and cooperation to design and implement effective policies and, finally, engages business across all sectors and other stakeholders in substantive dialogue and partnerships.

To view the video in English, please click here.