Big Nations OK Plan to Curb Trade Bribery

The United States and other industrial nations agreed on a plan to criminalize business bribery of foreign public officials, U.S. officials said. The pact, reached at the Paris-based Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, came after several years of protracted negotiations and should benefit U.S. companies competing in world markets, they said. Commerce Secretary William Daley called the pact a major step. U.S. companies have been prohibited by law for two decades from paying bribes to foreign officials to win business in developing countries and elsewhere. But their competitors in other industrial nations have not faced such restrictions. Under the pact, the 29 nations in the OECD agreed to introduce legislation by April 1, 1998, U.S. officials said, and to open negotiations promptly on a treaty to accomplish that same end. Talks are supposed to conclude by December, with the treaty in force by the end of next year.