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dam-l Export Credit Agency Watch: Corruption Bullies

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1/20/00 Dow Jones Int'l News Serv. 19:09:00 
           Dow Jones International News 
   Copyright (c) 2000, Dow Jones & Company, Inc. 
                          
            Thursday, January 20, 2000 
                          
 US Bullies Foreign Govts For American Companies Abroad - Survey 
 
  WASHINGTON (AP)--The U.S. government often exploits its superpower status
to cajole foreign governments into granting lucrative business contracts to 
American corporations, a survey released Thursday said. 
 
  The report was made public by Transparency International, a global
coalition that monitors corruption around the world. 
 
  Among other findings, the survey concluded that companies from Sweden, 
Australia and Canada are the least likely among 19 countries listed to pay 
bribes to win or retain business in a given country. 
 
  Companies which received the lowest ratings were from Taiwan, South Korea
and China. American firms were ranked 9th. 
 
  The study, conducted by Gallup International Association, covered
interviews with 779 private sector leaders from 14 emerging market economies -
Indonesia, the Philippines, South Korea, Thailand, Argentina, Brazil,
Colombia, Hungary, 
Poland, Russia, Morocco, Nigeria and South Africa. 
 
  According to the survey, the United States, by a wide margin, was ranked as 
the country most likely to use diplomatic and other pressures to gain unfair 
business advantage for its companies. 
 
  In response to the question of which governments were most likely to resort 
to such practices, 61 percent listed the United States. France and Japan were 
next, each with 34 percent. Among the 19, Sweden, Austria and Switzerland
came out with the best ranking. 
 
  The respondents to the survey said the most prevalent means governments use 
for gaining advantages for business in their own countries were: diplomatic
or political pressure (59 percent), commercial pressure/dumping and price 
manipulations (49 percent) and financial pressure through differential taxes, 
tariffs, custom barriers and subsidies (45 percent). 

 
  The State Department offered no comment on the report Thursday. 
 
  US Chamber Of Commerce Official: Envy Inspires Critics 
 
  Willard Workman, a senior officer of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, 
acknowledged that governments routinely promote sales through subsidies but 
said those offered by the United States through the U.S. Export-Import Bank
are 
much smaller than those of France, South Korea, Japan, Britain or Germany. 
 
  He said the complaints registered by those surveyed are a "function of sour 
grapes by our foreign competitors who have been losing to American 
competition." 
 
  Frank Vogl, vice chairman of Transparency International, told a news 
conference that all major exporting countries use their embassies to persuade 
host governments to drum up business for corporations back home. 
 
  "I don't know whether that is unethical," he said. But, he said, the 
perception among the private sector leaders interviewed was that the U.S.
tries to pressure foreign governments on behalf of American companies more than
anyone else. 
 
  The study also said Western governments are doing little to curb bribery in 
dealings with developing countries, despite an international convention
against the practice. 
 
  Transparency International chairman Peter Eigen said the scale of "bribe- 
paying by international corporations in the developing countries of the world 
is massive." Transparency has offices in 80 countries. 
 
  In 1997, a clean practices convention was signed among 34 member states of 
the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. So far, 18 nations 
have ratified the convention, including the United States and most European 
countries.