Anti-corruption Measures in New NAFTA Lack Teeth, Lawyers Say: Kathleen Hamann Quoted in GIR Just Anti-Corruption

While many lawyers agree that it’s a positive step forward for Chapter 27 of the new US-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) to include commitments to fight corruption in international trade deals, it is also widely acknowledged that without including provisions for accountability, the countries have no real way to hold each other to their anti-corruption promises.

In fact, Pierce Atwood litigation partner Kathleen Hamann, a former FCPA prosecutor who also spent ten years at the State Department, noted, “I would have been more surprised if there hadn’t been an anti-corruption chapter.” Kathleen went on to add that she didn’t think the chapter would have “much of an impact,” and that there can be “a kind of treaty fatigue” when countries continue to make the same commitments to reduce corruption with no “enforcement mechanisms.”

The complete article by Clara Hudson appears in the November 19, 2018 issue of Global Investigations Review Just Anti-Corruption