B20 Joint Taskforce Meeting at the OECD
On May 28 and 29, the B20 Joint Taskforce Meeting was held in cooperation with Business at OECD (BIAC) at the OECD Headquarter in Paris. On May 28, the eight taskforces convened to further develop their policy papers and recommendations. The eight taskforces B20 Argentina taskforces are
Sustainable Food System
SME’s Development
Trade & Investment
Employment & Education
Energy, Resource & Sustainability
Integrity & Compliance
Financing, Growth & Infrastructure
Digital Economy & Industry 4.0
The participation rate was very high with more than 450 taskforce members attending the taskforce meetings. Overall, the policy drafting process has advanced towards strong recommendations for the G20 leaders.
Several representatives from German companies and organizations participated in the B20 Joint Taskforce Meeting. Klaus Moosmayer, Chief Compliance Officer Siemens AG and Co-Chair of the Integrity and Compliance Taskforce, led the participants through the Integrity and Compliance Meeting. Beate Ehle, Executive Vice President and President, Market and Business Development, BASF Corporation and deputy to the Co-Chair of the Energy, Resource Efficiency and Sustainability (ERES), supported the ERES taskforce meeting.
Additionally, the 4th SMEs Access to GVCs Round Table took place. The roundtable gave actionable recommendations how to deliver better regulation across sectors. Participants highlighted SME financing and participation in GVCs as top priorities. Speakers included, among others, Erol Kiresepi, President IOE, Alexander Shokhin, President, Russian Union of Industrialists & Entrepreneurs, and Inés Berton, Chair B20 SME Task Force, CEO & Founder of Tealosophy.
On May 29 the Annual Business at OECD (BIAC) Panel Session took place. Business at OECD (BIAC) has strongly supported the B20 over the last years. It was the fourth time Business at OECD co-hosted the B20 Joint Taskforce Meeting and the Business at OECD Panel Session. For the B20 this meeting is not only important to advance the taskforce work. It is essential to allow for people-to-people dialogues and to build or renew strong networks. It is also an excellent opportunity to advocate for the B20 positions. The high level sessions started with a welcome note by OECD Secretary-General Angel Gurría, who voiced his worries regarding the future of the multilateral trading system and called for international businesses to further support multilateral cooperation.
B20 Germany Sherpa Stormy-Annika Mildner moderated the panel The G20 as a multilateral platform to address global challenges. Miguel Braun, Secretary of Commerce, Ministry of Production, Argentine Government, Hamad Albazail, G20 Sherpa of Saudi Arabia, Kyong-lim Choi, G20 Sherpa of Republic of Korea, Paolo Rocca, B20 Trade and Investment Chair and Gabriela Ramos, OECD Chief of Staff and Sherpa, discussed their experiences, hopes and expectations regarding the G20 and B20 processes. The continued support of the business community for the G20 process was evident and visible in the lively discussions and high-level participation at the B20 Joint Taskforce Meeting.
The B20 Joint Taskforce meeting was an excellent opportunity to promote the B20 Evaluation of the Hamburg G20 Leaders’ Declaration. Through a qualitative-quantitative analysis, the study analyses the responsiveness of the G20 to the B20 in G20 communiqués. The results and learnings can critically influence future B20 process and set a standard for future evaluations of the responsiveness of the G20 to B20 recommendations. You can find the report on the B20 Germany website.
Update B20 Argentina
The B20 Joint Taskforce Meeting was a milestone in the development of the B20 policy papers. Some papers such as the Digital Economy and Industry 4.0 paper are well-underway to be finalized, some others will have up to two more rounds of discussion. Consensus is expected to be reached by July. This will allow for many advocacy opportunities before the B20 Summit. Interaction with the G20 is envisaged at several G20 Working Group Meetings from July until the end of November. In addition, B20 Argentina will present the status quo of discussion at various international meetings, e.g. the WTO Trade Dialogues in June and the IMF/World Bank Annual Meetings in October. The B20 Summit 2018 will be held in Buenos Aires on October 4 and 5.