The word “compliance” in Pakistan took on a whole new meaning in 2014 when key Pakistani exports won tariff-free access to the massive European Union market. That new status, known as the Generalised System of Preferences plus (GSP+), is linked to the implementation of 27 international conventions including labor rights, sustainable development, and good governance…. Read More
The next year is shaping up to be a big one for multilateral free trade agreements and, by extension, efforts to fight corruption in international commerce. First, there is the historic Trade Facilitation Agreement (TFA) that grew out of the World Trade Organization (WTO) accord reached in December 2013 in Bali. Under the TFA, all… Read More
Thanks to its Special Economic Zone status, many foreign companies assemble cars and electronics in the Kaliningrad region for the broader Russian market. But corruption remains a major barrier. At public events on corruption, no matter how sophisticated the participants and no matter how narrow the subject, the discussion invariably seems to wander off topic…. Read More
Corruption is a direct threat to a country’s democratic emergence and an obstacle to a country’s democratic development. In Thailand, for example, corruption was the stated justification for the military’s ousting of an elected government in 2006 and the Supreme Court’s sacking of another elected government in 2008. Competing allegations of corruption were the main drivers… Read More
Surveys attempting to measure illegal or frowned-upon behavior are notoriously difficult to execute in a useful way. This is especially true when it comes to surveys asking global corporate leaders how well they are following anti-corruption laws. On the one hand, such surveys can end up underestimating the problem when companies are reluctant to acknowledge… Read More