Trade and Investment Archives

Business Pushes for TFA Ratification at G20 Summit

Published on August 29, 2016

International flagsPromoting robust trade and investment is a key focus of the B20 2016 policy recommendations to the G20 summit, which will take place in Hangzhou, China on September 3 and 4. Business recommendations include improving the global investment environment, strengthening the multilateral system and rolling back protectionist measures. USCIB and several of its members contributed to the recommendations. According to Rob Mulligan, USCIB’s senior vice president for policy and government affairs, G20 governments can take one easy step to boost growth.

“The upcoming summit is an important opportunity for the G20 to push for the ratification of the World Trade Organization’s Trade Facilitation Agreement by the end of this year,” Mulligan said. Once implemented, the TFA has the potential to increase global exports by up to $1 trillion per year, according to the WTO’s World Trade Report.

The International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) also published a set of business recommendations for sustained economic growth ahead of the G20 summit.

Additionally, President Obama will promote the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) during his upcoming trip to China and Laos in early September, according to a White House statement released on August 18. As part of Obama’s Asia trip, he will attend the G20 summit and use use the visit as an opportunity to discuss a wide range of global and regional issues, including adoption of TPP.

“This visit also will support the President’s efforts to expand opportunities for American businesses and workers to sell their products in some of the world’s fastest-growing markets,” the White House said in a statement. “Central to this effort is the Trans-Pacific Partnership, the high-standards trade agreement that will unlock key markets to American exports and cement America’s economic leadership in the Asia-Pacific.”

Obama’s push for TPP comes at a time of growing skepticism that the trade agreement will be approved before election day in November. Both Republican and Democratic nominees for president oppose the agreement.

Investment Facilitation – UNCTAD’s Useful Agenda For Pragmatism Over Politics

Published on August 11, 2016

By Peter Robinson, President and CEO, United States Council for International Business

investment_buildingsWe in the international business community are, frankly, not in the habit of finding inspiration in policy papers on the sometimes politically-charged topic of international investment from the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), often seen as an organization more aligned with developing country governments. But a recent UNCTAD document, UNCTAD’s Global Action Menu for Investment Facilitation, discussed at last month’s UNCTAD’s Fourteenth Ministerial Conference and, in more detail, at its parallel World Investment Forum, is a valuable contribution to ongoing policy debates on international investment in developing countries, in the U.S., European Union and around the world.

Building off of the important model of the Trade Facilitation Agreement adopted at the World Trade Organization’s ministerial meeting in Bali in December 2013 and currently in the final stages of an extended ratification process among the WTO member countries, the UNCTAD proposal for an Investment Facilitation Action Agenda eschews broad and controversial policy issues related to international investment and, instead, focuses on concrete implementation and facilitation steps which governments, developed or developing, who chose to welcome Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) can take to improve their competitiveness as an FDI destination. Out with politicized policy debates on Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) and in with practical recommendations to help governments attract more and better foreign investments and to do it more quickly and efficiently.

Read the full column at Investment Policy Central.

Pro-Investment Policies Really Matter!

Published on August 4, 2016

International flagsThe OECD’s Development Assistance Committee (DAC) is the premier international body where major foreign donors discuss development policy issues and coordinate their assistance programs.  The DAC just released its 2016 Annual Report “The Sustainable Development Goals as Business Opportunities,” with a special focus on the key role the private sector and foreign direct investment (FDI) can play in economic development of poorer nations.  The DAC report was unveiled last Month in New York during the United Nations’ High-Level Political Forum, where USCIB member companies and the International Chamber of Commerce played a lead role in highlighting the efforts business is making to support the UN Sustainable Development goals (SDGs).

Shaun Donnelly, USCIB’s vice president for investment and financial services, was one of the outside commentators representing a wide range of views invited to offer opinion pieces sprinkled throughout the DAC report. Donnelly’s piece, “Pro-Investment Policies Really Matter,” argues that foreign direct investment can be a major contributor to economic development only if the recipient countries have the right pro-investment policies and a strong rule-of-law culture.

Read Donnelly’s Pro-Investment Policies Really Matter

Read the OECD DAC Report: The Sustainable Development Goals as Business Opportunities

Check out USCIB’s coverage of the report here.

 

USCIB Talks Trade with European Journalists

Published on July 21, 2016
Shaun Donnelly (third from left).
Shaun Donnelly (third from left).

If passed, the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), a trade agreement between the United States and the European Union, would liberalize one third of global trade, stimulating economic growth and creating jobs on both sides of the Atlantic.

On July 18, USCIB Vice President Shaun Donnelly and Eva Hampl, director of investment, trade and financial services, hosted a dozen visiting journalists from European Union nations to discuss the on-going TTIP negotiations.

The group of European journalists, visiting Washington and Boston on a week-long program sponsored by the U.S. State Department to familiarize European media leaders with American perspectives on T-TIP, met with representatives from government, academia, business and other experts.

Donnelly and Hampl had a lively, hour-long on-the-record session which focused on investment chapter issues, including Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS), regulatory issues and the political backdrop to the negotiations on both sides of the Atlantic. The meeting provided a good opportunity for USCIB to articulate U.S. business positions, priorities and concerns on the important TTIP negotiations.

Please contact Donnelly (sdonnelly@uscib.org) or Hampl (ehampl@uscib.org) for additional details on the interview session for interested members.

USCIB Helps State Department Launch 2016 Investment Climate Statements

Published on July 8, 2016

Donnelly_CSISAn important component of the U.S. State Department’s economic mission, the Investment Climate Statements contain country-level information on a variety of issues important for U.S. businesses, such as market barriers, business risk and intellectual property rights. On July 5, the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) hosted the State Department’s presentation of the statements’ key findings. USCIB Vice President for Investment and Financial Services Shaun Donnelly joined leaders from the State Department’s Economic and Business (EB) Bureau, and other investment experts for the launch event.

Scott Miller, Scholl Chair holder in International Business at CSIS and a former Chair of USCIB’s Trade and Investment Committee, emceed the roll-out event. Kurt Tong, Acting Assistant Secretary in the EB Bureau, highlighted the improvements made in this 2016 version of the 170 country-by-country Investment Climate Statement reports, each laying out the legal and policy environment, opportunities and challenges U.S. investors encounter, whether in an established European market, a key emerging market like China or India, or in a smaller developing nation. Donnelly and other panelists then offered observations on the value of the reports for USCIB members and American business.

“Anyone considering investments in a new market overseas should definitely consult the relevant Investment Climate Statements and may want to follow up in more detail with the key staff in State’s Investment Office or in the particular US embassy which prepared the relevant country report,” Donnelly said.

Bringing Trade and Investment Back on Track

Published on June 24, 2016

 

POSTPONED

2016 OECD/USCIB/BIAC Trade and Investment Conference:

Bringing Trade and Investment Back on Track

 

 

The 2016 OECD/USCIB/BIAC Trade and Investment Conference: “Bringing Trade and Investment Back on Track”, scheduled for September 15 has been postponed. We will make an announcement when a new date for the conference is set in 2017.

 

OECD Secretary General Addresses the Washington Trade Community

Published on June 22, 2016
Mulligan WITA
L-R: Rob Mulligan (USCIB), Nancy Donaldson (ILO), Ken Ash (OECD) and Shawn Donnan (Financial Times)

On June 17, USCIB participated on a panel organized by the Washington International Trade Association with the OECD on Trade and Inclusiveness, which followed a speech by OECD Secretary General Angel Gurria. Gurria delivered key points to an audience of over 80 people about the importance of trade and investment for economic growth.

Rob Mulligan, USCIB’s senior vice president for policy and government affairs, participated on a panel moderated by Shawn Donnan (Financial Times) and talked about the 10 recommendations that the Business and Industry Advisory Committee (BIAC) to the OECD made for increasing productivity, growth and prosperity. The recommendations included the need to address cross border trade barriers, improve regulation and regulatory cooperation, provide an environment conducive to investment, encourage lifelong learning, create a framework that supports innovation and the digital economy, and flexible labor markets.

There was a loose consensus among the speakers that policies to open trade and investment had to be supported by complimentary policies that facilitate opportunities for all to benefit from growth generated by trade. In the questions from the moderator the panel touched on global value chains, localization requirements, competitiveness, the changes in trade agreements over the last 20 years as well as several other topics.

Other panelists included Ken Ash (OECD) and Nancy Donaldson (International Organization of Employers).

USCIB will be organizing a trade and investment conference in Washington, D.C. in September.

BIAC: Strengthen SME Financing and Global Growth

Published on June 22, 2016

Money_globeIn response to the current low growth trap facing many economies, the newly released publication, “Financing Growth; SMEs in Global Value Chains,” advocates G20 policy consistency for long-term financial stability, investment and economic growth. It shares perspectives from government, international organizations, business and academic thought leaders.

“For SMEs to participate in global value chains and underpin economic recovery, urgent actions are needed at G20 level to better coordinate financial regulations, strengthen access to financing and training and support the sharing of information through digital platforms,” said Bernhard Welschke, BIAC secretary general, commenting ahead of the G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors meeting in July in Chengdu.

The publication builds on a Roundtable event held on May 31 in Paris, co-organized by BIAC, B20 China, OECD, World SME Forum and SME Finance Forum.

The publication Financing Growth; SMEs in Global Value Chains is available online here: http://biac.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/Financing-Growth-SMEs-in-Global-Value-Chains.pdf

For further details about the Roundtable held on May 31, please see a video summary here: https://youtu.be/nVbwdLuoEMU and webpage here: http://biac.org/?p=13715

Still Clapping For Investment With Just One Hand

Published on June 17, 2016

By: Shaun Donnelly, USCIB

I was pleased to read earlier this week that Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker had appointed 19 leading representatives from the public and private sectors to the new Investment Advisory Council (IAC) which had been established earlier this year to advise the U.S. government on issues related to Foreign Direct Investment (FDI).  We at the US Council for International Business certainly welcome this new IAC and the increased focus on FDI issues. FDI is, indeed, critical to American economic growth and jobs.

But, unfortunately, a little bit of digging with Commerce staff after these appointments were made confirmed my fears that the Department and the U.S. Government are still stuck in a bygone era and clapping for FDI with just one hand.  The U.S. Government still seems stuck in an outdated mercantilist world view where inward FDI is good and deserves strong U.S. government support while outward FDI by U.S. based firms, the other side of the FDI coin and the other hand that could be clapping, is somehow bad and should be punished.  Some in the U.S. Government and on Capitol Hill still seem to think, somehow, that U.S. firms are investing abroad simply to outsource production.  Nothing could be further from reality.  Studies show American firms invest abroad to tap new markets and grow their companies.  Over 95 percent of the production of U.S. investments overseas is sold overseas, generating new revenues and new jobs here at home.

Read the full article at Investment Policy Central

Business Mobilizes Support for Sustainable Development at OECD Forum

Published on June 1, 2016
Robinson_OECDforum
USCIB President and CEO Peter Robinson

The business community is 100 percent on board with United Nation’s 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda and wants to contribute meaningfully, USCIB President and CEO Peter Robinson told the OECD Forum today, but companies need a stable and predictable policy environment in which to operate.

Held in Paris every year to coincide with the OECD Ministerial Council Meeting, the theme of which this year is “Enhancing Productivity for Inclusive Growth,” the OECD Forum has emerged as a major international conference. Leaders from all sectors of society, including former and current heads of state, CEOs, leaders of key NGOs and trade unions and prominent members of academia and media, gather to debate the most pressing social and economic challenges confronting society.

Robinson participated in a panel on the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and spoke about the private sector’s contributions to the global community’s objectives (full program here). The SDG agenda encompasses a wide array of inter-related economic, social and environmental issues. Governments – as well as non-governmental stakeholders – will need to adapt to new challenges and overcome intellectual and institutional silos. The business community, including USCIB, has helped to spearhead the private sector’s input to the development of the SDGs, and is working hard to mobilize and demonstrate business support around specific objectives.

“We have constructed a sophisticated platform, Business for 2030 for companies to learn how to support specific aspects of the Global Goals, and for policy makers and the development community to learn more about company projects and business initiatives in support of the SDGs,” Robinson told the audience.

A catalog of business engagement that showcases the private sector’s contributions to the SDGs, Business for 2030 features over 140 initiatives from 35 companies in over 150 countries of how businesses are helping to achieve 72 of the 169 SDG targets. The website highlights concrete initiatives and public-private partnerships to inspire renewed trust in the private sector, and to catalyze sustained and active business engagement in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

Robinson also talked about the importance of adopting the right policy frameworks that make badly-needed investments in the developing world less risky. He said the policy tools and instruments of different international organizations, including those of the OECD, should be promoted among all countries, including the OECD’s Policy Framework for Investment (PFI) – a key checklist for policies that will encourage investment and growth in countries.

“Globally, official development assistance is dwarfed by foreign direct investment,” Robinson said. “We need to provide incentives for investment to flow where it can do the most good.”

Other speakers on the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development Panel included Martine Durand (OECD), Michael Elliott (ONE), Aart de Geus (Bertelsmann Stiftung), Alenka Smerkloji (Minister for Development, Slovenia), Helle Thorning-Schmidt (Save the Children International) and Peter Turkson (Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace).

The OECD Forum runs from May 31 to June 1 in Paris. USCIB is the U.S. affiliate of the Business and Industry Advisory Committee (BIAC) to the OECD. More information on the forum is available at the OECD’s website.

Read more: “10 Business Recommendations for Productivity, Prosperity and Inclusive Growth,” BIAC Statement to the OECD Ministerial Council Meeting 2016