Earlier this week, President Donald Trump announced his decision to suspend enforcement of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act against U.S. companies on the basis that it was prohibiting them "from engaging in practices common among international competitors". This is a major development in international white collar crime and anti-bribery enforcement and is a clear steer to U.S. companies not to feel inhibited by anti-bribery and corruption laws when doing business overseas.
On Times Radio, Nick Vamos discusses how "President Trump, in his transactional way, seems to have reached the conclusion that this [policy] is disadvantaging U.S. companies," and that other countries like China are "are getting an advantage because they are not so restricted as U.S. companies".
These changes suggest that bribery by U.S. companies will now be legal in the national interest. Having spent years berating other countries for not having strong enough anti-bribery laws, the U.S. now wants to drag the playing field back down into the mud where no-one will see what is happening.
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