Russ Feingold: “export promotion is a critical component of both domestic economic growth in this country and of our foreign policy. One…”

“export promotion is a critical component of both domestic economic growth in this country and of our foreign policy. One of the barriers to more trade for U.S. companies has been a virtual subsidy by the governments of many of our trade competitors for offering bribes to win foreign contracts. Of course, U.S. business is prohibited from engaging in bribery by the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. While there have been calls to repeal the FCPA, for almost 2 years, I have been working to promote universal acceptance of the principles of the FCPA. I introduced legislation and a sense of the Senate resolution last year to move forward in that direction. A version of the proposals were included in the Senate State authorization bill, but not included in the conference agreement. For a problem that no one seems to want to talk about publicly, there has been some important movement to help eradicate this practice in Europe. Two years ago the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development a group of 26 major industrialized countries, passed a resolution to "deter, prevent, and combat bribery." Now it has expanded on that by recommending that members terminate the tax- deductibility of bribes, such as allowed in Germany and elsewhere. This is a significant step toward leveling the playing field for U.S. exports.”