The order is included in a presidential decree, which was signed by Donald Trump on Monday. The decree means that the newly appointed US Attorney General Pam Bondi must now pause all legal proceedings and actions where the legal basis is the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) from 1977.
It sounds good on paper, but in practice, it's a disaster, says Trump about FCPA, according to the news agency Bloomberg.
Deleting a "crown jewel"
Criticism of Trump's decree did not take long to arrive.
Gary Kalman, head of Transparency International US, warns that Trump's decree paves the way for completely deleting the "crown jewel" of the US's fight against global corruption, reports USA Today.
According to Kalman, not only have individuals and companies that have committed corruption been held accountable with the help of FCPA. He means that the law has also led companies to develop strict controls to prevent the concealment of bribery.
Kalman describes FCPA as a model, which has inspired many countries in the world to introduce similar regulations against bribery and corruption.
"No one wants to do business with Americans"
Trump motivates his decree by saying that the law means that American companies and entrepreneurs who do legal business in other countries are almost always investigated, which in turn makes "no one want to do business with Americans".
Bondi has now been tasked with developing revised and reasonable guidelines instead of FCPA.
According to the White House, there have been 36 FCPA cases per year over the past ten years, which the Trump administration believes has drained resources from American companies and law enforcement agencies.
