Competitiveness and Innovation

Innovation and Competitiveness

Smart, effective policies to promote American competitiveness are critical as we emerge from the global economic downturn. Innovation powers our economy and is essential to tackle global challenges such as climate change. Yet in many ways our own policies, and those of other countries, undercut our competitiveness.

Documenting Global Companies’ Positive Impact at Home

American innovation is under threat from well-known threats like counterfeiting and piracy. But it is also harmed by politicized claims that our most successful companies routinely “ship jobs overseas.”

To help set the record straight, the United States Council Foundation and the Business Roundtable published an influential study by Dartmouth Professor Matthew Slaughter demonstrating the sizeable domestic returns – in terms of employment and R&D here at home – of overseas operations by U.S. multinationals.

Competitive Taxation Policies

The tax world is being reshaped by a series of major trends and developments. Fallout from the financial crisis, the emergence of new economies as global players, a focus on transparency and effective tax administration, and increasingly close international cooperation are just some of the currents affecting tax systems and taxpayers alike.

USCIB worked closely with the Executive Branch, Capitol Hill and international bodies like the OECD to promote tax policies that support the dynamism of globally engaged companies. This included holding the latest in a series of annual conferences in Washington, D.C. looking at the range of international tax matters addressed by the OECD.

Competitiveness and the Internet

Innovation, like trade, is a two-way street: nations gain from free exchange and mutual openness to new ideas. The Internet’s development provides a clear example of the benefits of smart policies. Through vigorous representation in the Internet Governance Forum and other international discussions, USCIB worked hard to ensure that effective Internet-related policies continue to foster an environment that has enabled remarkable innovation and economic development. Such policies bring tremendous benefits to America’s communications and information technology industries as well as our overall competitiveness.

Internal Revenue Service Commissioner Douglas Shulman addressing the 2009 OECD Tax Conference.