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International Product Policy
Who We Are:
USCIB’s International Product Policy Working Group works to ensure that U.S. products have timely access to markets around the world by encouraging product and chemical policies based on hazard and risk evaluations that reflect good science, protect confidential business information, and avoid technical barriers to trade.
Our U.S. and Global Footprint:
The International Product Policy Working Group meets regularly with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and State Department officials. In addition, the Working Group meets throughout the year to bring together a cross-section of U.S. industry to share resources to track and influence chemical management and product stewardship developments in international forums, namely the Strategic Approach to International Chemicals Management (SAICM), the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).
How We Operate
Close to our Members:
The International Product Policy Working Group prioritizes its workload to reflect the needs of USCIB member companies. As a working group, we develop industry-wide positions and strategies to ensure our messages are shared with U.S. and foreign policymakers, while at the same time advocating for industry’s interests in relevant international discussions.
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INTERNATIONAL PRODUCT POLICY Working Group Chair
Ernest S. Rosenberg
President and Chief Executive Officer
American Cleaning Institute
INTERNATIONAL PRODUCT POLICY Working Group Staff
Helen Medina
Director – Life Sciences and Product Policy
(212) 703-5047
hmedina@uscib.org
Kira Yevtukhova
Program Development Assistant
(212) 703-5082
kyevtukhova@uscib.org
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Our Strategy for Success:
In addition to meeting with government officials in Washington, DC and in New York to advocate business interests, USCIB and member companies represent industry at high-level international conferences to defend and promote USCIB members views. When we succeed, USCIB positions are well reflected in the principles put forth in the various forums where product stewardship and chemicals management guidelines are shaped.
Some Key Policy Priorities and Planned Activities:
Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Chemical Dialogue: We support sound management of chemicals throughout their life-cycles. This is why we are involved in the APEC Chemical Dialogue where regulatory officials and industry representatives come together to find solutions to challenges facing the chemical industry and users of chemicals in the Asia-Pacific region. In this forum, we advocate for a balanced approach that recognizes and respects the important concept of intellectual property and protection of confidential business information while acknowledging the need to share and have access to relevant information regarding chemicals in articles.
U.N. Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20), June 20-22, Rio, Brazil: We support good governance and have consistently advocated for the importance of predictable and transparent policymaking in international forums. This is why we have been involved in the preparatory work leading up to Rio+20 and are planning to have industry presence at the Conference. This is to ensure that international policies and practices relating to access to environmental information are not
interpreted widely without explicit protection of confidential business information, including intellectual property rights.
International Conference on Chemicals Management (ICCM3), September 17-21, 2012, Nairobi, Kenya: We support sound chemicals management throughout their lifecycle so that by 2020, chemicals are produced and used in ways that will not have significant adverse affects on human health and the environment. This is why we support the Strategic Approach to International Chemicals Management.To this end we have been active stakeholders in meetings leading up and will be present at ICCM3. We believe that sharing relevant information along the supply chain to minimize significant adverse impacts on human health and the environment is important. However, it is equally crucial to acknowledge that protecting confidential business information and intellectual property rights has an essential role in fostering innovation.
