Reported by Bernhard Warner

President Trump has long argued that a law barring companies from bribing officials of foreign governments stifles deal-making abroad and puts American companies at a disadvantage.

But when he effectively put the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act out of commission this week, the order did not elicit the cheers from corporate America that you might have expected. Lawyers who specialize in corporate corruption cases told DealBook that moves to potentially weaken the law could backfire on multinationals by actually raising the cost of doing business overseas.

The F.C.P.A. isn’t dead. But it’s up for review, and the concern is it could be weakened or shelved. That could create an open season for kickbacks — a price no business wants to pay. “It’s kind of the same idea like you don’t pay kidnappers, right? Because you just embolden the kidnappers to keep doing it,” said William Garrett, a legal expert who manages the Foreign Corrupt Practices Clearinghouse, a project developed by Stanford Law and the law firm Sullivan & Cromwell.

Read full report: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/15/business/dealbook/trump-anti-bribery-law.html