Seidenberg Blasts Regulatory Proposals, Pending Legislation
Verizon CEO Ivan Seidenberg cited several pending policy proposals and bills as major impediments to economic growth and competitiveness, at the Economic Club of Washington Tuesday. Potential negative effects of proposals in areas like broadband, trade, the financial revamp and taxes are “too significant” to ignore, Seidenberg said. He criticized the FCC’s approach on broadband as “overbearing.” (See separate story in this issue.) Meanwhile, he warned of unintended consequences of Congress’s proposed financial reform (CD May 5 p2). Some of the current proposals with respect to derivatives and proxy access go too far, imposing one-size-fits-all solutions on “highly dynamic and diverse businesses,” he said. The revamp would increase risk and volatility “at a time when just the reverse is required,” he said.
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
Timely, relevant coverage of court proceedings and agency rulings involving tariffs, classification, valuation, origin and antidumping and countervailing duties. Each day, Trade Law Daily subscribers receive a daily headline email, in-depth PDF edition and access to all relevant documents via our trade law source document library and website.
U.S. companies’ international competitiveness also is being impeded by corporate tax structures and taxation of overseas earnings, Seidenberg warned. The House recently passed a tax extender bill containing several provisions that raise taxes on multinational companies, he said, saying these actions would impair competitiveness and harm U.S. workers. Next year, unless the Congress takes action, the tax on dividends is scheduled to rise to that of ordinary income, with rates topping out at 39 percent, he said. He also underlined concerns over the slow pace of trade agreements adopted by the U.S.: “We need to make sure the U.S. isn’t a flyover zone when it comes to international trade and foreign investment."
Seidenberg urged infrastructure investment. In particular, “we need to upgrade our transportation and energy systems with communications and information technology to create smart grids” to improve efficiency and productivity, he said. Some of this will take public investment, but most can be done by the private sector, if regulators don’t impose “so many rules and regulations that it becomes an uneconomic proposition,” he said. He also urged tax policies that promote capital formation and increase exports.
Seidenberg repeated that Verizon Wireless is interested in offering the iPhone but said “that’s an Apple decision.” The carrier will start to roll out its LTE wireless network later this year, which will increase data speeds by up to 10 times, Seidenberg said.