Adam Torres and Whitney Baird discuss the Milken Institute Global Conference.
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Show Notes:
Listen to Milken Institute Global Conference coverage. In this episode, Adam Torres interviews Whitney Baird, CEO at US Council for International Business, explore the future of international trade architecture and the Milken Institute Global Conference.
About Whitney Baird
Whitney Baird is President and CEO of the United States Council for International Business (USCIB), the leading voice of American business in global economic policy. An accomplished diplomat with a distinguished career in international affairs, Baird is a passionate advocate for open markets, trade, and the role of business in promoting economic prosperity and social progress.
Baird’s extensive experience in government and business has fostered a deep understanding of the challenges and opportunities facing the global economy. Prior to joining USCIB, Baird served as the Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for the Bureau of Economic and Business Affairs at the U.S. Department of State, leading efforts to promote American economic interests abroad in close collaboration with U.S. businesses, foreign governments, and international organizations. Baird also led the U.S. Mission to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) as Chargé d’Affaires from 2020-2022, representing American interests in this key forum on economic policy, trade, and development.
About US Council for International Business
The United States Council for International Business (USCIB) advances the global interests of American business. We do so through advocacy that calls for an open system of world trade, finance and investment, where business can flourish and contribute to economic growth, human welfare and environmental protection.
No other American business organization provides its members with better access to key intergovernmental bodies worldwide.
USCIB’s advocacy spans a broad range of policy issues, leveraging the expertise of our business members and a unique network of global business organizations: the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC), Business at OECD, and the International Organization of Employers (IOE). Through these organizations’ official consultative status in major intergovernmental forums, USCIB represents American business positions both to the U.S. government and to such organizations such as the UN system, the OECD and the International Labor Organization.
Full Unedited Transcript
Hey, I’d like to welcome you to another episode of Mission Matters. My name is Adam Torres, and if you’d like to apply to be a guest in the show, just head on over to mission matters.com and click on Be Our Guest to Apply. All right, today my guest is Whitney Baird and she’s the CEO over at US Council for International Business.
Whitney, welcome to the show. Terrific. Thanks so much, Adam. All right. So for everybody listening to this is an episode as part of our Milken Institute, global Conference coverage series, where we’ve been interviewing individuals that participated and attended the Milken Global Conference in Beverly Hills , California, and Whitney was there this year.
And I guess just to get this kicked off here, Whitney, was this your first time attending or maybe have you attended the conference in the past? Like what’s your history with the conference overall? Sure. No, it was my first time attending and really enjoyed it sets me up to want to come back and mm-hmm.
In a much more considered way next year to be able to take better advantage of all of the events. Hmm. What were some of the things that stuck out? I know for me, like just the network, the people, the, like, the content, like, I mean, where the list goes on for you though. What, what are some of the things that stuck out?
I really just, it was a wide range of people there from you know, private sector, sort of civil society, a wide group of leaders. Just a lot of interesting conversation about. In a sense, what matters now? What’s going on in the economy, what’s coming at us? You know, obviously with the change of administration, a lot of the policy issues there were people from the new administration, they’re talking about the Trump administration’s agenda.
But additionally, you know, ai, I mean talking about AI in the workplace, AI as a facilitator of innovation, you know, everywhere. Just a lot of interesting conversations. Yeah. I wanna go into, the work you’re doing at US Council for International Business. So maybe let’s start with a little bit more about the organization, maybe the history.
Sure. Well, we’re celebrating our 80th year this year, created in 1945. It’s a business association. We have about 300 members, primarily, you know, us US companies who care very much about what is happening in the international economic policy space. So although they are US based, what happens in the UN at the OECD, at the WTO, all of these other.
Acronyms that, mm-hmm. Work on economic and, and business policy, it affects them because you know, many of these companies are global in nature. Hmm. , How did you originally get involved , with the council? Like , how did that originally kind of mm-hmm. So I’ve been in this position about 18 months.
Before that I spent well over 30 years with the Department of State as a foreign service officer as an economic officer. And so I will nerd alert, I, you know, love policy, the economic policy. And really just you know, success of US business overseas is based on the enabling environment you know,, to create a good investment climate.
And that’s where we really enjoyed. I really enjoyed working. . So when U-S-C-I-B came calling, I was very excited to take that opportunity. Yeah. What are some of the areas of, I don’t know if I should say concern or opportunity, but like , what are some of the areas that you’re following for US multinationals?
Like what, what are some of those areas? Sure. There is I think there is a lot of really great work going on internationally on, mm-hmm. You know, labor standards, we like to see high labor standards. That’s good for us workers if everyone is having to pay appropriately and protect their workers.
There’s a lot in the environmental space. There’s really important negotiations going on. On things like ending plastics pollution. Hmm. You know, just big work going on in trade policy and digital policy. And again, ai, AI is everywhere. It affects every facet of of business. And there are a lot of countries and organizations just trying to get their arms around how do you promote innovation and provide the kind of guardrails that keep us safe.
Hmm. And, and when you look at all of those things let’s get into maybe some of the trade side of things and what’s going on there too, and specifically the future of international trade architecture. Now you’ve, whether it was from your days in the foreign working foreign services, or now obviously A CEO at the US Council for International Business, like what are you seeing?
Well, I think it’s a time there’s a lot of I would say there’s a lot of uncertainty and and some real adjustment. Mm-hmm. The Trump administration has come in, it’s made very clear that the America First policy means that there’s some challenges to some of our traditional trading partners.
And the imposition of tariffs to, to try to bring folks to the table. And we definitely wish wish the administration’s success in getting these issues resolved because certainly for our members the tariffs I would say. You know, create some difficulty in in how they source and where they invest and how they invest.
And we just we try to engage with the US government and with others to make sure that our members are in the best place. Hmm. I know this is a broad question, it’s gonna vary from, you know, where they’re sourcing what they’re doing and otherwise, and, you know, people that have been it’s a different environment.
Like how, are people getting along? Like, what are you seeing, like boots on the ground? Look, I was again, a diplomat for mm-hmm. Well over 30 years. You know, I would say my approach is a diplomatic approach. Mm-hmm. And that’s where I’m comfortable. I think president Trump has made quite clear that, you know, he takes a harder edged deal making approach.
Mm-hmm. I think that’s probably caused some consternation with some of our trading partners. Sure. And you know, from our perspective representing, you know, companies, we like to see predictability, stability. Mm-hmm. We’re in a little more difficult I would say it’s just a little more difficult environment right now.
So, you know, I think what we hope to see is success and some deals announced and mm-hmm. Success in reducing tariffs and making things easy for our members to yeah, do the work they do. Yeah. What kind of so obviously a lot of business owners, a lot of entrepreneurs, a lot of executives that listen to this show, and maybe some of them haven’t heard of us Council for International business like, or the membership base.
Like what does that look like and who is membership maybe appropriate for and who gets the most value, I should say? Sure. Well, I would say the majority of our members are , u probably US multinationals. Mm-hmm. They tend to have a global focus and be globally present. You know, it’s multi-sectoral, so.
Tech companies oil and gas majors big food and beverage companies, pharmaceutical firms, et cetera. Without calling, I, you know, without being overly specific, certainly we have our member list , on our website, but , it is exactly who you think the companies would be because. They’re globally invested and mm-hmm.
You know, and many of them have to go where the products are. If you’re an oil and gas major, you are invested where the oil and gas is, it’s very present in the US but it’s in a lot of other places in the world too. Hmm. So you know, they’re all obviously majorly invested in the United States and source what they can in the us but we’re in a globalized world and.
Generally they have pretty extensive and complicated supply chains. Hmm. So, just for some context for everybody listening, we’re recording this, you know, May 27th, 2025, just for some context there. And Whitney, I’m just curious, like going into the rest of. 2025, we got a couple quarters left. What are some things that people that are doing business internationally should be, should have on their mind?
Or what kind of conversations are you having right now about the rest of the year we’ll say. Right. I think look it, so we had it’s been a very eventful couple of months with the beginning of the Trump administration and certainly the announcement in early April of the imposition of tariffs.
We’ve had some pauses on, the tariffs. I think our businesses, our, members are looking ahead at the rest of the year. I think they’re looking forward to working with the administration on maybe some of the other aspects of the administration policies working on, you know, simplifying regulation a little bit, making it a bit more predictable.
I think that as always, they are looking for a positive environment for investment so they can grow and create jobs. Mm-hmm. It’s that’s what’s on their mind. But I think right now there’s just, again, , some anxiety with the uncertainty, with the tariff agenda. I think what they’re really hoping for.
I can say this across the board is just more predictability and, a real sense of where, you know, where this agenda is going and, hoping it comes out in a positive way. Yeah. That’s great. Whitney, if people are listening to this and they wanna get involved and they wanna follow up how do they learn more about US Council for International Business?
How do they follow up and how do they get info. Sure. Well, we would welcome companies that are interested in in joining and finding you know, more about some of the policy areas that we follow. Can certainly come to our [email protected]. And we would, we would absolutely welcome that. As I said, we have about 300 companies, law firms, associations, and others.
As I, as our members, we work in a very specific, kind of a very specific space that’s a multilateral and international economic space. But you know, for me, I love defending the interest of US business and, helping these guys be as successful as possible. Wonderful and Freddie watching, just so you know.
We’ll definitely put the links in the show notes so that you can just click on it and head right on over. Check out the website and speaking to the audience. If this is your first time with Mission Matters and you haven’t done it yet, hit that subscribe or follow button. This is a daily show. Each and every day I’m bringing you new episodes, new content, and hopefully new.
To help you along the way on your journey as well. So again, hit that subscribe or follow button. And Whitney, thanks again for coming on the show and being part of the series. And hopefully next year I’ll catch you in person at the next conference. So thanks again. Thanks so much Adam. Really appreciate it.
