Russ Feingold: “on another matter, international trade is a high priority in almost every country today. We are negotiating all sorts of…”

“on another matter, international trade is a high priority in almost every country today. We are negotiating all sorts of agreements to bring down barriers and protect our workers and promote economic development worldwide. One issue, Mr. President, that I have tried to identify as a barrier for competition for American businesses is the issue of bribery. American businesses live in accordance with the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. This was a bill offered by my predecessor from Wisconsin, Senator William Proxmire. Most businesspeople praise it as a way of maintaining honesty, and thus stability, in their business relationships. But, unfortunately, other countries--and one example is Germany--actually give their businesses the opportunity to write off a bribe in a foreign country as a tax deduction at the end of the year. So it is illegal for one German to bribe another German, but if they were to offer that bribe to somebody in another country, they can use it as a tax deduction. This produces some pretty unhappy faces when American businesspeople find this out. Some say that bribes are the cost of doing business overseas, particularly in some developing countries. I believe, however, it is a barrier to doing business in the long run, particularly overseas, since it can only retard economic growth in some of the developing countries. As a result, Mr. President, I have introduced legislation to try to get at this problem.”