Donald Trump has given corporate America a license to bribe. In an executive order on Monday, February 10, the US president directed the justice department to suspend prosecutions under the 1977 Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA), which prohibited bribing foreign officials. The "overexpansive and unpredictable FCPA enforcement against American citizens and businesses – by our own government – for routine business practices in other nations ... actively harms American economic competitiveness and, therefore, national security," Trump wrote in his executive order. The federal justice department has been given a renewable six-month period in which to review its practices, examine current procedures and refrain from initiating new ones.

"It sounds good on paper, but in practicality, it's a disaster," the American president clarified about the FCPA in the Oval Office. "It means that if an American goes over to a foreign country and starts doing business there legally, legitimately or otherwise, it's almost a guaranteed investigation, indictment and nobody wants to do business with the Americans because of it."

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