Paris, 16th December 2020—Earlier this week, we released business comments to the OECD/G20 Inclusive Framework consultation on blueprints addressing profit allocation—also known as Pillar One—and a minimum tax—known as Pillar Two.

Our comments underline the importance for any guidance to be firmly rooted in widely accepted tax principles, with clarity, consistent implementation and the development of early tax certainty processes to prevent and resolve related disputes.   This objective will be essential to achieve long term sustainability, of critical importance as we head towards recovery from the effects of Covid-19 on our economies.

Our submission also highlights divergence between the OECD/G20 Blueprints and our Business Principles for Addressing the Tax Challenges of the Digitalizing Economy, outlining concrete and constructive suggestions to close those gaps.

“We remain committed to the OECD process, and we will be relentless in our defense of multilateralism,” stated Will Morris, Chair of the Business at OECD Tax Committee.  “We hope that despite the broad ambitions of the OECD/G20 project, due consideration may be given to reaching a more limited yet realistic agreement by June 2021, coupled with a binding undertaking to engage in a more fundamental medium to long term discussion.”

Unilateral measures by governments seeking to deal with the tax challenges of digitalization are causing uncertainty and investment caution. Our recommendations call for all participating countries to remove unilateral measures with a commitment to forego future measures at odds with a multilateral approach to provide a new system of taxing rights.

For further information, please contact:

Business at OECD

Ali Karami-Ruiz, Senior Director, Strategic Engagement and Communications

About Business at OECD

Established in 1962, Business at OECD stands for policies that enable businesses of all sizes to contribute to growth, economic development, and societal prosperity. Through Business at OECD, national businesses and employers’ federations representing over 7 million companies provide and receive expertise via our participation with the OECD and governments promoting competitive economies and better business.

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Paris, France, 8^th September, 2020 – Business at OECD (BIAC) and International Organisation of Employers (IOE) publish one of the first guides to help companies leverage corruption and human rights agendas.

The IOE and Business at OECD have just published Connecting the anti-corruption and human rights agendas: Guide for business and employers’ organizations.

Corrupt practices and human rights abuses share many of the same root causes, frequently occur in areas with weak governance, and pose similar reputational, financial, operational, and legal risks to companies.

Responses to corruption and human rights issues, however, often involve different actors, laws, regulatory considerations, business standards and practices. As a result, separate—and often siloed—government and company approaches emerge, limiting the potential for a shared response to these significant societal challenges.

The new IOE and Business at OECD guide aims to break down these silos and provide companies with non-prescriptive suggestions on potential synergies between human right and anti-corruption agendas while recognising that there is no one-size-fits all.

Specifically, the guide proposes ideas for how companies can leverage existing synergies, implement a more coordinated approach to risk assessments, where appropriate, and foster experience and information sharing between those working on anti-corruption and those working on human rights by presenting a number of questions for self-assessment.

It also provides an overview of the vast array of instruments and resources that exists in the fields of anti-corruption and human rights. The guide outlines examples of companies that have already embedded a more coordinated approach to human rights and anti-corruption in their operations.

Business at OECD and IOE’s joint publication complements recent work in this area, including the United Nations working group on business and human rights’ report to the Human Rights Council published in July 2020.

Business at OECD and IOE will update the document regularly to reflect ongoing policy developments and lessons learned by companies managing corruption and human rights risks.

For further information, please contact:

Business at OECD

Ali Karami-Ruiz, Senior Director, Strategic Engagement and Communications

About IOE 

IOE is the sole representative of business in social and employment policy debates taking place in the ILO, across the UN, G20 and other emerging forums.

For the past 100 years and on behalf of our more than 150 member countries, we also strive to leverage our unique experience, expertise and advocacy to influence debates on the most pressing issues for business and employers worldwide.

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Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, Paris, France, 2^nd September, 2020 – The Business 20 (B20), the official voice of the global business community across G20 members, and Business at OECD today launched a joint conceptual policy proposal that focuses on reducing barriers that firms encounter in their quest to participate in Global Value Chains (GVCs), as cross-border fragmentation and friction continue to impede the free flow of people, capital, goods and services.

The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the world’s dependence on GVCs. The policy paper titled “GVC Passport on financial compliance, a pragmatic concept to strengthen inclusive and sustainable growth” calls on G20 nations to work towards a system envisioning a significant reduction in bureaucracy, while increasing transparency and traceability, as well as facilitate firms’ access to wider markets.

The “GVC Passport” concept would allow firms incorporated in one participating country as a business entity to operate legitimately in other participating countries. It would provide an authenticated, authoritative, verifiable financial fingerprint of a given entity, enabling it to operate within GVCs without the need to reproduce the same documentation on multiple occasions.

Commenting on the announcement, Yousef Al-Benyan, Chair of B20, said, “The vision outlined in this paper is aimed at all firms, but particularly benefits small and mid-size enterprises (SMEs) who face a proportionately higher cumulative regulatory and administrative burden relative to their resources.  SMEs represent 90 percent of businesses and 50 percent of employment worldwide, and therefore hugely impacted by the events of the past nine months. Adoption of this policy initiative will help SMEs in the recovery phase by reducing operational costs and we are therefore recommending that the G20 supports it.”

The “GVC Passport” concept is envisioned to use technologies such as blockchain and artificial intelligence to offer firms the ability to operate seamlessly across borders. By doing so, it has the potential to remove geographic barriers and reduce red tape, bringing their work and the value they bring to their communities into the 21^st century.

Gianluca Riccio, Vice Chair of Business at OECD Finance Committee, said, “The GVC passport on Financial Compliance is a concept with the potential to benefit the entire global business community by increasing access to service and goods, improving transparency, reducing tax evasion, expanding data gathering and enabling faster adoption of digital tools and technology.”

The launch of the GVC Passport concept on Financial Compliance took place during a joint event between the B20, Business at OECD and the OECD, where business leaders, policymakers and subject matter experts offered their reflections and recommendations on sustainable and inclusive business practices for a successful recovery from the COVID-19 economic crisis.

For further information, please contact:

Business at OECD

Ali Karami-Ruiz, Senior Director, Strategic Engagement and Communications

B20

connect@b20saudiarabia.org.sa 
 +966 (11) 280 4947 

About B20 

The Business Twenty (B20) is the official G20 dialogue with the business community. As the voice of the private sector to the G20, it represents the global business community across all G20 members and all economic sectors.

The B20 supports the G20 through specific policy recommendations, the consolidated representation of business interests and economic expertise. It also fosters dialogue between the public and private sector. 

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Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, Paris, France, 2^nd September, 2020 – “The world is facing an urgent need to unite the efforts of political leaders and cooperate in the face of the current COVID-19 crisis. Collaboration between governments, international organizations, businesses and civil society is the only way to achieve an effective and timely resolution to this pandemic. The global business community has taken significant steps to redesign operating models and build resilience to adapt to this new normal. But while addressing short-term needs, it’s critical that we also don’t lose sight of the long-term issues that the world must prepare for now,” said Yousef Al-Benyan, Chair of B20 Saudi Arabia, at the first-ever virtual event jointly hosted by B20 Saudi Arabia, Business at OECD and the OECD,” said Yousef Al-Benyan, Chair of B20, at 6^th annual event jointly hosted by B20, Business at OECD and the OECD.

Countries around the world are tackling the immediate health, economic, labor and social impact of the COVID-19 crisis while easing lockdowns to reignite economic activities. In this context, The B20 – Business at OECD – OECD hosted a high-level session, in its sixth edition, which offered a reflection on key issues for businesses, policy-makers and experts, including recommendations for a sustainable and inclusive recovery.

In the panel discussions, leaders from the B20 community, G20 Sherpas, and the OECD senior experts discussed the G20 Saudi presidency agenda, business priorities, and expected outcomes at the Riyadh Summit in November this year. The group also exchanged views with G20 members’ policymakers. 

“As a Knowledge Partner to B20 Saudi Presidency, Business at OECD provides business perspectives and expertise across all areas of the B20 taskforce discussions. We also support the OECD in its vital mission to seek a path to resilient, sustainable, and inclusive recovery from the global pandemic. This is where the OECD has a unique role to bring different government agencies together and to convene OECD and G20 governments to develop concerted efforts,” said Phil O’Reilly, Business at OECD (BIAC) Chair.

The event was successfully closed by Angel Gurria, Secretary General of the OECD, who underlined the importance of the G20, Multilateralism and the future of globalization for the world leaders to work together toward a better future.

For further information, please contact:

Business at OECD
Ali Karami-Ruiz, Senior Director, Strategic Engagement and Communications

B20
connect@b20saudiarabia.org.sa
 +966 (11) 280 4947
www.b20saudiarabia.org.

About B20

The Business Twenty (B20) is the official G20 dialogue with the business community. As the voice of the private sector to the G20, it represents the global business community across all G20 members and all economic sectors.

The B20 supports the G20 through specific policy recommendations, the consolidated representation of business interests and economic expertise. It also fosters dialogue between the public and private sector.

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Paris, 10th July 2020 – This week, Business at OECD released two sets of tangible and feasible recommendations for OECD and governments to encourage job creation and health resilience post Covid-19. These recommendations were the basis for our contribution earlier this week in the OECD Roundtable Ministerial Meeting on Inclusion and Employment policies, and our bilateral dialogue with OECD Paris-based country delegations.

Eight business recommendations point to immediate analysis and actions OECD and its Member States should pursue to support quick recovery and maximize the uptake of sustainable employment. Addressing ministers and OECD at the meeting, Mr. Cesar Montemayor, our Executive Board Vice Chair, highlighted two of our recommendations: the need to tackle informality and promote job schemes that can preserve workers’ livelihoods. Ms. Renate Hornung-Draus, Chair of our Employment Policy Committee, stressed the importance of improving transparency and cooperation with the business community and consultation of social partners in particular during times where face-to-face meetings are restricted as an essential condition for the success of relaunch policies. The full set of proposals, including actionable ideas to foster skills, youth employment, and inclusive labor markets, can be found here: https://biac.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/FIN-10072020_Bringing-jobs-back-after-Covid-19-1.pdf

Recognizing the critical nexus between employment and health policy design and implementation, our global business experts identified five areas where OECD could play a foresight role to anticipate any future health shocks. Our recommendations, if implemented, would significantly strengthen resilience of health and safety systems, support innovation, identify effective prevention initiatives and enhance digital health. “We look to the OECD to promote evidence-based analysis and leverage its cross-disciplinary expertise to break silos and examine how to advance integrated health policy approaches, insuring in the process that industry is included and seen as a solutions partner in these discussions,’’ said Thomas Cueni, Chair of our Health Committee. The full set of proposals on health can be found here: https://biac.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/FIN-10062020-Business-at-OECD_A-call-to-action_Business-recommendations-for-future-OECD-work-on-health-003-converti.pdf

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Paris, 26^th June, 2020 – Business at OECD reiterates its commitment to engage constructively in the OECD project to address the tax challenges of the digitalisation of the economy. It continues to firmly advocate that reaching a global solution is the only way to avoid unilateral solutions which would do great harm to tax certainty and global trade in general.

Will Morris, Chair of Business at OECD’s Committee on Taxation and Fiscal Policy, commented: “While we have previously suggested a re-prioritization of OECD fiscal work amid the Covid-19 crisis in order to take into account the resource strain for most companies and governments, we want to strongly reiterate that we remain completely committed to supporting the critical goal of a sustainable international consensus, which meets countries’ needs, and supports innovation and investment.  We hope that this consensus will be achieved soon.”

Business at OECD will continue to offer full support, engagement and cooperation to the OECD to continue work on the technical aspects of the project in the Inclusive Framework process, in order to arrive swiftly at a solution that is satisfactory for companies and tax administrations alike.  Likewise, to the greatest extent possible, we will encourage national leaders to reach a political consensus as soon as possible.

Business at OECD appeals to all stakeholders to subscribe to the aim of achieving this multilateral outcome.

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Paris, 27^th May, 2020 – Today, Business at OECD published its 2020 Economic Policy Survey, indicating a sharp deterioration of business confidence across OECD economies.

“The COVID-19 pandemic poses a substantial threat to the global economy resulting from containment and other measures essential to address the health impact,” said Mr. Russel Mills, Business at OECD Secretary General. “Our survey points to a stark decline of the overall business climate, with global leading business organizations concerned that the economic fallout could exceed that of the Financial Crisis. A bottom-up, business-led recovery with a strong and effective cooperation with governments is now critical. As we start the long recovery process, we plan to leverage the core OECD values and unique comparative advantages, including evidence-based policymaking, peer learning processes and reviews to enable the dissemination of best practices.”

Key insights from our survey include:

• While in 2019 only 16% of business federations perceived the business climate as weak or very weak, this share now skyrocketed to a staggering 95%.
• Alarmingly, 3 out of 4 respondents expect the current crisis to have a more severe economic impact than the financial crisis. A swift rebound appears unlikely.
• About half of surveyed business organizations consider government response measures as largely appropriate in the short-term, while the other half regards these as too small or somewhat small.

“Extraordinary expansionary monetary, fiscal and economic policies will be required from now well into 2022 in most countries to counteract the risks stemming from the immediate fallout from containment measures”, noted Dr. Klaus Deutsch, Chair of the Business at OECD Economic Policy Committee. “Despite strong public efforts to support businesses and workers during the crisis, we expect higher unemployment, increased rates of business bankruptcies, weaker public and private balance sheets, reduced investment spending, and increased calls for protectionism. Effective recovery plans and international coordination and cooperation are vital.”

About the 2020 Economic Policy Survey
We conducted our survey in mid-April 2020. 20 national business and employer organizations, representing 73% of all OECD countries’ GDP, participated in the survey. Each participating business and employer organization represents thousands of companies across several economic sectors in their respective countries.

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Paris, 14th May, 2020 – Following Colombia’s formal accession to the OECD as 37th Member State last month, we are pleased to officially welcome the National Business Association of Colombia—ANDI—as the Colombian affiliate of Business at OECD.

Our collaboration with the Colombian business community spans eight years when ANDI joined our Observer program. Our work with leading business organizations from non-OECD countries brings business expertise and enables participation in our business groups and liaison with OECD bodies.

We also provided input to the accession of Colombia, which formally started in 2013. As the official business advisory body to the OECD, Business at OECD  values the thorough process that takes place in each accession process as it encourages countries to improve their business environment and engage in the necessary reforms.

Commenting on ANDI’s participation in our work, Bruce Mac Master, President of ANDI stated, “amidst the difficult times we face nowadays, there is always good news. Colombia is now part of OECD and ANDI, as representative of Colombia’s private sector, has become a full member of Business at OECD. It is an excellent opportunity to share best practices with our global partners and to drive new solutions for a changing world, where general well-being will be one of our highest priorities.”

Russel Mills, Business at OECD Secretary General, commented: “we are delighted to have ANDI formally join as member. It allows us to successfully convene the growing global business community in OECD countries and key partners. More than ever our expanding business network depends on effective engagement with policy makers to ensure an enabling environment to support trade and investment in global markets. The adherence to OECD standards and instruments, and their reliable implementation, are critical for more productive and competitive economies.”

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Business outlines trade policy actions to minimize supply chain disruptions and address Covid-19 outbreak.

Paris, 7th April, 2020 – Today, we released a statement outlining priorities for a Covid-19 trade policy response with three overarching objectives for OECD:

• support OECD member and partner countries in establishing necessary, effective, and evidence-based measures to address the Covid-19 pandemic;
• safeguard that governments do not misuse these developments to adopt or keep arbitrary, discriminatory or protectionist policies that disrupt supply chains and put further strains on the economy;
• highlight the crucial role of open trade and global value chains as fundamental drivers to recover from this global crisis.

We submitted this paper as business input into the virtual OECD Trade Committee meeting of senior trade officials from OECD member and partner countries.

Among others, the paper calls for:

• OECD to establish a framework to monitor and analyze trade policy measures that are introduced by governments in response to the Covid-19 pandemic
• OECD in-depth analysis of the impact of COVID-19 on world trade, investment, and global value chains, with policy guidance on international cooperation
• OECD work towards a reduction in tariff and non-tariff barriers as an effective tool in stimulating the economy, and as part of a holistic economic policy response.

Commenting on the role the OECD can play in supporting international coordination on the global pandemic:

• “The OECD should support measures that are targeted, risk-proportionate, transparent, WTO-compliant, and temporary – ideally with sunset clauses and a clear exit strategy’’ – said Clifford Sosnow, Chair of the Business at OECD Trade Committee.
• “Businesses face serious cash-flow constraints that threaten their sustainability and ability to exist in the short-term. Trade Ministers can design effective policies to stimulate the economy, and should be a critical part of a holistic economic policy response.” said Marta Blanco, Vice Chair of the Business at OECD Trade Committee, and President of the Spanish CEOE International. Spain will chair the OECD Ministerial this year.
• “Trade responses will need to be integrated into the OECD-wide strategy to help coordinate a “Global Marshall Plan” based recovery policy. Unilateral measures that disrupt the required trade and investment would have devastating consequences, delay recovery and further aggravate countries’ pandemic preparedness and resilience.” Said Russel Mills, Secretary General, Business at OECD.

The OECD Trade Committee meeting takes place from 7 to 9 April 2020 – a little more than a week after G20 Trade and Investment Ministers committed “to presenting a united front against this common threat.”[1]

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[1] G20 (2020): G20 Trade and Investment Ministerial Statement 30 March 2020

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Paris, 16th January, 2020 – “G20 leaders must step up their game to strengthen cross-border coordination and remove artificial obstacles to improve the business and financing environment for SMEs, or we risk missing out on their potential”, said Business at OECD Chairman Phil O’Reilly at the Inception Event of the Saudi B20 Presidency. “We must also better address the unintended consequences of domestic and cross-border regulations. Digital technologies bring opportunities for more accessible and affordable finance and can benefit small companies worldwide, but also mitigate the risk of illicit financial flows which are said to amount to USD 1 trillion.”

On the occasion of the Saudi B20 Inception event, a new Business at OECD report released today (available here) highlights that trade finance, key to business trust in global trade activities, is a case in point for the need to make additional efforts to tackle regulatory fragmentation:

• The role and further development of trade finance is central to business trust in global trade activities, with four-fifths of those activities – worth USD 15 trillion a year – underpinned by specialized loans or guarantees.

• Access to services supporting trade transactions, especially financing and risk mitigation, should be made more easily and affordably accessible especially to SMEs to address the unmet demand for trade finance.

• Further developing “trade ecosystems” can support payments and enable trade financing, accessible to both SMEs and large corporates, leveraging both traditional data sources and new data arising from digital technologies.

Gianluca Riccio, Vice-Chair of the Business at OECD Finance Committee and member of the B20 Finance and Infrastructure Taskforce added: “We should carefully consider the cumulative burden of regulation, look at reforms with small players in mind, and have a holistic view across players to achieve sustainable, balanced growth. As highlighted in our paper, it is imperative for all policy-makers and standard-setting bodies to have an overarching view across regulations.”

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