16 February 2000
(Details of convention one year after implementation) (420) (begin fact sheet) OECD Bribery Convention - Fact Sheet -- The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) Convention on Combating Bribery of Foreign Public Officials in International Business Transactions was signed on December 17, 1997. -- All 29 OECD countries are signatories (Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Korea, Luxembourg, Mexico, The Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Spain Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, the UK, and the USA). Five non-members are also signatories (Argentina, Brazil, Bulgaria, Chile, and the Slovak Republic). -- The OECD Convention entered into force for the United States and eleven other signatories on February 15, 1999. As of today, twenty-one countries have passed implementing legislation (Australia, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Canada, the Czech Republic, Finland, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Japan, Korea, Norway, the UK, the USA, Mexico, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden, and Turkey). -- The purpose of the Convention is to oblige states that are parties to make it a crime under their national laws for their citizens or commercial enterprises to bribe foreign public officials in the conduct of international business. It requires that states have laws that prohibit the activities of those who offer, promise or pay a bribe to secure a commercial advantage. -- As it seeks to eliminate the payment, not the receipt, or bribes, the Convention is a "supply side" agreement. -- The Convention provides clear definitions of the commercial bribery offense, requires countries to impose effective and dissuasive sanctions, and captures illicit activities of intermediaries. It establishes the basis for cooperation between parties in mutual legal assistance and extradition in cases involving covered commercial bribery offenses. It establishes the liability of corporations for bribery, and makes bribery of foreign public officials a predicate offense for the purposes of money laundering. -- In addition, the parties to the Convention are carrying out a program of systematic monitoring of the implementation of national laws. The parties are scheduled to begin examination of enforcement of these laws later in the year. -- Signatories to the Convention account for about two-thirds of all global exports and about 90 percent of all foreign direct investment (FDI). -- For additional information on the Convention on the internet, see the following websites: http://www.state.gov http://www.ita.doc.gov/legal www.oedc.org/daf/nocorruption (end text) (Distributed by the Office of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Website: usinfo.state.gov) 2