The United States, Mexico, and Canada are close to reaching an agreement to rebalance and modernize the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) into a 21st century, high-standard trade deal. The goal is for the new United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) to better serve the interests of American workers and businesses and support mutually beneficial trade leading to freer markets, fairer trade, and robust economic growth in North America. For example, NAFTA was negotiated a quarter century ago when there was no e-commerce, and therefore had no rules in place to foster growth in the age of digital. The proposed USMCA  guarantees the freedom to move data across borders and prohibits the forced localization of data, thereby ensuring continued growth for a dynamic area of international commerce. Mexico and Canada are the top two export destinations for U.S. small and medium-size businesses and more than 12 million American jobs depend on trade with Canada and Mexico. Canada and Mexico have ratified the agreement and we are now waiting on the US Congress for its final approval.

Our USMCA Forum: Connecting to a Global Market event on December 12th will highlight possible outcomes the agreement could have for our area business community.  In particular, we will look at how regional manufacturers will experience a more beneficial and balanced trade environment that further supports high-paying jobs for their employees and growing the local economy.

To understand at quick glance the key provisions of the USMCA agreement for the state of Illinois, we have provided a fact sheet provided by the United States Office of the Trade Representative for you to review.

View full pdf here:  usmca_illinois.pdf

​We hope you can attend the USMCA Forum event on December 12th from 3:00-5:30pm at White Eagle Golf Club in Naperville to further understand how this important agreement will impact trade in North America.
 
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Indulge me a bit more as I continue my discussion from the last issue of The Current on the great Energy/Climate/Sustainability initiatives in which our Chamber Members are leading the way.
Last week, BP announced a $25M investment in Illinois at their R&D hub in... Naperville! They will be piloting an enhanced recycling technology that enables currently un-recyclable plastic waste to be diverted from landfill or incineration and instead transformed back into raw materials. This new pilot plant is planned to be located in Naperville, and it is expected to be operational in late 2020.
BP sees the potential to develop multiple full-scale commercial plants using this technology around the world. If deployed at scale in a number of facilities, BP estimates that the technology has the potential to prevent billions of plastic bottles and trays from ending up in landfill or incineration every year.

This is exciting news for our business community not to mention our environment. NACC is so proud to have this advancement and investment in our backyard.

Also last week, I was able to meet personally with Chuck Chaitovitz, Vice-President of Environmental Affairs & Sustainability with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce during his visit to Naperville. As I mentioned in my earlier blog, I will be serving on their U.S. Chamber Task Force on Climate Action to ensure our members stay informed on climate policy development impacting our businesses and have a voice in the process.

Don't forget to complete the Naperville Environmental Sustainability Task Force (NESTf) business survey at this link:  http://bit.ly/nestf-business-survey

NESTf is a group of community leaders who are charged with recommending to the Naperville City Council long term strategic plans to promote the environmental and economic sustainability of our community. We are excited that Catherine Pawlowski with Executive Premier member, IKEA, is now involved with this group sharing IKEA's robust sustainability models.

If you have an interest becoming more involved with the climate conversations, please contact me at rosborne@naperville.net or (630) 544-3387.

A recent high point for me was being appointed to serve on the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Task Force on Climate Actions.  The Goals of this initiative are to:

• Gain an understanding of the implications and issues associated with carbon pricing and other potential climate actions
• Learn how carbon pricing policies outside of the U.S. are impacting companies and the competitiveness of the economies in which they operate
• Explore the extent to which and how businesses weigh potential risks and opportunities of climate change
• Assess the impacts of explicit (e.g., carbon tax or cap and trade) and implicit (e.g., regulation) carbon price mechanisms
• Promote a solutions-focused dialogue among companies and sectors

A GIG economy is a labor market characterized by the prevalence of short-term, independent contractors or freelance workers as opposed to workers who receive a salary or an hourly wage. 
Some wins for gig workers are they can choose assignments that make the most of their talents and passions and allow for flexibility of work hours and locations. Millennials in pursuit of greater work-life balance or baby boomers in pursuit of extra income to off-set limited retirement funds and still allow time for travel, etc. are two segments most enthralled with gig work.  Others are low-income families looking to earn additional income above their full-time jobs in order to make ends meet.

The development of new technologies has paved the way for a quantum leap in the growth of gig opportunities, allowing transactions between providers and consumers such as Uber, Lyft, DoorDash and Airbnb.  In 2017, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that 55 million people in the U.S. are “gig workers,” which is more than 35% of the U.S. workforce. That number is projected to jump to 43% by 2020. (Forbes 7/29/18)
 
Wins for the employer are possible saving on brick and mortar office space, costly health insurance and other required benefits of full-time employers.  They are able to maintain an on-call contingent workforce for temporary expertise, for higher volume times, etc.  on an as-needed basis, saving significant dollars in costly full-time employees. 

However, recently the gig economy has been viewed as exploitative for these same reasons for the lowest paying gigs which are most often held by the more disadvantaged groups. Livable incomes (hourly minimum wage), overtime compensation, job security, unemployment and workers compensation, on-the-job expenses, paid sick-leave, ability to form unions, etc. are not available to lower-income gig workers. Fair Labor Standards Act, American with Disabilities Act or the Civil Rights Act protections are not available to gig workers.

Last week, California’s Legislature passed a “groundbreaking legislation” preventing many companies from claiming workers are independent contractors.  AB 5 passed has passed the House and Senate and now is awaiting Governor Gavin Newsom to sign it into law.  Under their “ABC” test, a worker are employees if:

1. they perform tasks under a company’s control
2. their work is integral to the company’s business and
3.  they do not have independent enterprises in that trade

Click here for more details on the bill and implications.
 
This will have a tremendous impact on Uber and Lyft who expect to have an 20%-30% increase in their costs should the bill become law.  Interesting to note, Uber just signed a 10-year lease for a 450,000 square feet office space in the Old Post Office in downtown Chicago making it their second largest office behind its headquarters in San Francisco.  Uber also has their Uber Freight trucking business headquarters in Chicago.  Click Here for more details on Uber’s expansion in Chicago.

More states are expected to follow suit in addressing issues of California’s AB 5.  Stay tuned as we follow this potentially groundbreaking shift in our workforce.
 

After very controversial debates over three very lengthy city council meetings, the Naperville City Council has voted to prohibit the adult use cannabis business establishments in Naperville, i.e. opting out of cannabis retail sales.  One caveat to the motion, is to explore the possibility of offering a referendum on the ballot of an upcoming election to allow resident weigh-in.  Whether that will be the March 2020 primary election, the November 2020 U.S. election or the April 2021 municipal election, will be discussed at upcoming city council meetings. 

This is one of the most complex issues facing the City of Naperville in a while. Proponents of opting out voiced concerns over messages given to our area youth, drawing correlation between availability and increased use.  Proponents of opting in sighted use of the additional tax revenues from cannabis retail sales tax for drug education programs for our youth and more control of location, zoning, etc.  Hats off to our city council members for closely examining all the complexities of this issue prior to casting their vote.

The Naperville Area Chamber of Commerce maintained a neutral position throughout the debates, only requesting City Council to pump the brakes and take time for staff to conduct needed research and analysis of what a potential opt-in regulatory structure would look like, so that an educated decision could be made.

The Chamber plans to host a forum soon, comprised on national and international researchers to speak to the impact of cannabis retail outlets on the business community.  Public safety, control and enforcement of adult-use products, economic development opportunities and realistic tax revenues projections are also issues to be explored in the forum.

NACC will keep you “In the Know” as we as a community moved into this new era as recreational cannabis use becomes legal January 1, 2020.