Senior representatives from two USCIB member firms were panelists at an April 20 joint meeting of the OECD and the World Bank Group on Investment Climate Reform in Washington. Keying off the OECD’s updating of its Policy Framework for Investment (PFI), a policy checklist for developing countries looking to attract more private Foreign Direct Investment (FDI), the seminar focused on ways the OECD and World Bank Group can cooperate to promote investment climate reform around the world.

USCIB and the Business and Industry Advisory Committee to the OECD (BIAC) have been active over the last 15 months as the ten year-old PFI has undergone a rigorous assessment and updating process.  The OECD is on track to formally adopt the updated PFI at its annual ministerial in Paris in early June.  The Bank Group and the OECD are strengthening their cooperation around the updated PFI as a tool to drive investment policy reform.

This week’s session included high level speakers from the OECD, World Bank, and U.S. government plus the Finnish and Myanmar co-chairs of the year-long PFI update process.  The April 20 session included a panel of business representatives. Along with a Madagascar entrepreneur, USCIB members Kimberley Claman of Citigroup and Nicole Bivens Collinson of Sandler, Travis & Rosenberg P.A. spoke for the private sector.  They laid out their perspectives on what international investors look for in assessing investments in developing countries.  Their comments sparked a good exchange with other seminar participants, including USCIB staffers Shaun Donnelly, vice president for investment and financial services, and Eva Hampl director of investment, trade and financial services.

USCIB appreciates the contributions Claman and Bivens Collinson made to the PFI session at the bank this week as well as the contributions other members have made throughout the year-long review and update process on the PFI documents.

USCIB joined over 60 business associations urging Congress to include investment protections, particularly investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS), in Trade Promotion Authority legislation, which was introduced last week.

ISDS, a legal instrument that allows investors to use dispute settlement proceedings against foreign governments, has been mischaracterized and politicized by trade opponents. USCIB and other business groups have advocated for strong investor protections in U.S. trade agreements, which promote greater opportunities for American businesses and workers in the global economy.

“ISDS is a strong enforcement tool that helps ensure that American businesses and their workers will be treated fairly overseas,” wrote USCIB and 61 other business organizations in a letter sent to Congress today. “This mechanism is an essential part of high-standard U.S. trade and investment agreements and should remain a high priority trade negotiating objective in the renewal of Trade Promotion Authority.”

The letter’s signatories represent millions of companies of all sizes from every major sector of the American economy. The letter notes that dispute settlement is necessary for protecting American companies’ foreign investments, and it points out that ISDS panels only enforce international commitments to which each country has voluntarily agreed; ISDS panels cannot overturn any country’s laws or regulations.

USCIB has been working with member companies and other trade associations to highlight the benefits of strong investor protections in TPA and in America’s on-going trade agreements, including the Trans-Atlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) with the European Union, and the Trans-Pacific Partnership with Pacific-rim countries. USCIB also partnered with Bloomberg last week to convene a timely conference on the benefits of TPP, bringing together key players in the global trade and investment debate.

USCIB joined other private-sector executives, non-governmental organization leaders and trade association representatives in supporting the long-term enhancement of the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), an economic agreement between the United States and sub-Saharan Africa that supports African female entrepreneurs by increasing their access to global supply chains.

“Since its inception, the AGOA program has been designed to both fuel African economic development and advance good governance, democratic reforms, and economic inclusion, including for the women of the continent,” wrote USCIB President and CEO Peter Robinson and other senior representatives in a letter to Congress in support of the AGOA program.

African countries must meet eligibility criteria to participate in the AGOA program. USCIB and others urged Congress to create a new criterion focused on eliminating gender-based discrimination in the workplace. USCIB member companies UPS, Wal-Mart and GAP signed the letter and are actively engaged on African issues.

The AGOA program gives African businesses preferential market access in exchange for African government commitments on good governance and policies that increase trade and investment. The authors of the letter to Congress cited a United Nations report that shows that the gender gap in Africa, namely low female workforce participation, has limited the region’s economic growth.

“For this reason,” wrote the authors, “we strongly believe a renewed AGOA should ensure that beneficiary countries demonstrate progress on female economic empowerment.”

USCIB and others also urged U.S. policymakers to create incentives within AGOA to encourage African governments to fully implement the World Trade Organization’s Trade Facilitation Agreement, which will reduce the time, cost and complexity of trade and investment in sub-Saharan Africa.

Earlier this month, USCIB and the Business and Industry Advisory Council to the OECD released a report on Women’s entrepreneurship, “Putting ALL Our Ideas to Work: Women and Entrepreneurship,” which offers practical experience to policymakers in identifying best practices, addressing obstacles and implementing policies that will help unleash the potential for women’s entrepreneurship activities.

The AGOA program expires in September 2015 if it is not reauthorized.

“We encourage you to use this important opportunity to shape a bill with provisions that will enhance the participation of female entrepreneurs across the African continent by generating new opportunities, igniting growth and strengthening regional economic integration,” wrote Robinson and the other authors.