April and May saw the trade policy debate rise to the top of the Washington, D.C. agenda, and USCIB was front-and-center on Trade Promotion Authority and related topics.

USCIB staff and members participated in a roundtable discussion with Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Gil Kerlikowske; received a briefing from Sarah Fox, Special Representative for International Labor Affairs at the State Department; discussed competition issues with Carles Esteva Mosso, Deputy Director, General Mergers, DG Competition, European Commission; built business support that helped get TPA passed in the Senate; and represented member views in Europe, in meetings on Capitol Hill, at the OECD and the White House.

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During the months of February and March 2015, USCIB hosted the second joint ICT conference titled “Promoting Inclusive Growth in the Digital Economy: The OECD Evidence and Practice Base” and hosted the first-ever joint USCIB/ICC Customs and Trade Facilitation Symposium, “Finding Solutions to Cross-Border Challenges.”

Staff and members met with Everett Eissenstat, Chief International Trade Counsel for the Senate Finance Committee and William Danvers, Deputy Secretary General of the OECD, as well as officials from the Department of Homeland Security, the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, the U.S. Trade Representative, the EPA and multiple bureaus of the State Department; participated in public consultations with the OECD on tax, investment and ICT; and represented member views on panels in California, Washington, DC, Geneva, Brussels and Paris.

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The new year is off to a running start for the Washington office of the United States Council for International Business, both in the District and abroad. Over the past two months, USCIB staff members wrote a letter to President Obama in support of passing Trade Promotion Authority; pushed the importance of investment protections, especially investor-state dispute settlement, in multiple fora and across Europe; arranged meetings with officials including Ambassador Michael Punke on the margins of Environmental Goods Agreement negotiations in Geneva; wrote four letters on chapters of the OECD BEPS Discussion Draft; met with Jason Kearns, Minority Trade Counsel for Ways and Means; received a briefing from Andy Wyckoff, Director, OECD Directorate for Science, Technology, and Innovation; participated on a panel in Peru regarding single window implementation; and much more.

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The USCIB Washington Office has been especially busy in the last two months hosting an inaugural OECD/USCIB/BIAC Trade and Investment Conference and the USCIB Annual International Leadership Award Dinner, which occurred for the first time in Washington, DC. Ambassador Michael Froman (USTR) spoke at both of those events, and the dinner also featured remarks by the honoree WTO Director General Roberto Azevedo, as well as U.S. Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Gil Kerlikowske and Congressman Peter Roskam (IL-6), among others. These events took place between travel to Korea, France, the UK, Belgium, Switzerland, Austria and China; meetings with representatives of the B20/G20 from the U.S., Australia and Turkey, as well as with Ambassador Daniel Sepulveda of the State Department, Bob Stack of Treasury, Ed Brzytwa, Director of APEC Affairs at the United States Trade Representative, and Anne Carblanc of the OECD; and presentations at the Inter-American Development Bank, the World Investment Forum, the UN Committee of Tax Experts, and the APEC Leaders’ Summit.

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During the months of August and September, USCIB’s Washington, D.C. office arranged for members to meet with Dan Mullaney and Daniel Bahar from USTR to discuss TTIP, TPP and new developments on the China BIT negotiations; organized a program in Geneva on forced localization; filed a submission on China compliance with the WTO; met with Arrow Augerot of USTR on APEC priorities for 2014; led U.S. industry input into the OECD on its action plan for BEPS; engaged Caitlin Fennessy of Commerce on EU data privacy issues; sent comments to ICANN on domain name collisions, and much more.

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During the months of August and September 2014 USCIB staff hosted a launch event on Capitol Hill for the Coalition for Green Trade in support of the Environmental Goods Agreement with USTR Froman and Sen. Wyden as lead speakers; organized a meeting for members with Amb. Sepulveda on the future of the IGF; discussed the status of investment negotiations with Daniel Bahar, USTR , and Michael Tracton, State; submitted extensive comments to USTR on China’s WTO compliance; chaired the first in – person meeting of the APEC Virtual Customs Working Group, and much more. Below are summaries of these and other highlights from the activities of USCIB in Washington, DC over the last two months. If you have any questions or comments, or want more information on a specific topic, please contact any of the staff members listed at the end of this brief.

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During the months of June and July 2014 USCIB staff hosted the ninth annual OECD International Tax Conference with over 300 participants; represented members at meetings in Geneva focused on the Environmental Goods Agreement negotiations; met with Customs and Border Patrol Commissioner Kerlikowske; participated in a drafting session at the OECD on revisions to the 2002 Security Guidelines; launched a social media and advocacy campaign in the days before the first WTO Trade Facilitation Agreement deadline to try to save the deal; and much more. Below are summaries of these and other highlights from the activities of USCIB in Washington, DC and globally over the last two months.

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During the months of April and May 2014 USCIB welcomed two new staff members: Ariel Meyerstein, Vice President, Labor Affairs, Corporate Responsibility and Corporate Governance, and Eva Hampl, Director, Investment, Trade and Financial Services; arranged meetings for members with EU negotiators of the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), with Rich DiNucci, CBP, Dan Stajcar, CSI and Tim Skud, Treasury on customs and trade facilitation, and with Bob Wang, State and Ed Brzytwa, USTR on the outcomes of SOM II in the APEC region; provided stakeholder input on TTIP and on the Environmental Goods Agreement, traveled to Paris, Geneva and Sao Paulo to represent members at the ICC, B20, BIAC and the OECD ministerial, NETMundial and in the OECD BEPS working Group; and much more. Below are summaries of these and other highlights from the activities of USCIB in Washington, DC and globally over the last two months.

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Washington Update: February – March 2014

With everyone in Washington, DC looking forward to spring as we exit from an especially cruel winter, we wanted to report on USCIB’s recent activities in our nation’s capital. It has been an especially busy period for us as we advocate for sensible policies to promote trade, cross-border commerce and a seat at the table for business.

Highlights include:

• a high-level conference on Internet and ICT policy issues, organized with the OECD and BIAC
• discussions with top trade policy officials from the Hill and USTR on a range of US trade talks
• a mission to Europe to build support for the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership and explain U.S. business views
• a meeting with FTC Chair Ramirez to discuss competition policy
• and much more.

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