Global corruption totals over a $1 trillion a year, according to experts at the World Bank. It distorts trade, increases poverty and undermines democratic political systems in scores of countries. When a Middle Eastern General uses his government's funds to buy European rather than U.S. aircraft, because the Europeans are offering a huge kick-back, then an excellent U.S. defense contractor, and all the U.S. manufacturers that supply this company, are cheated, and so too are the citizens of the General's country.

When a U.S. company allegedly pays millions of dollars in bribes to win business, as Enron was accused of doing in India a few years ago, then the reputation of U.S. business is damaged and that impacts large and small companies aike that directly and indirectly engage in global commerce. The U.S. government and U.S. business has understood this for years, and in 1977 the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act was passed, making it a criminal offense for a U.S. firm to bribe foreign officials.

Now, at last, the rest of the world is waking up and a new United Nations Convention Against Corruption has just been signed.

For too long the rest of the world ignored the cancer of corruption and U.S. companies were at a competitive disadvantage, because they could not bribe abroad, while many of their rivals used bribes at every opportunity and wrote them off against their taxes!

American business has repeatedly lost out. The chief executive of a major engineering company once told me that he walked away from a deal worth over $100 million in Latin America because he refused to offer a $10 million bribe to the country's president. The CEO of one of the U.S.'s largest pharmaceutical companies similarly told me as we discussed one of Asia's most populous countries, "we will not do business there-we are not prepared to pay bribes."

Now, that may all be about to change.

In time, the new UN Convention may become as prominent and influential as the UN Declaration of Human Rights. And, importantly for U.S. manufacturers, it can certainly help to "create a level playing field for doing business around the world," says Dr. Stuart Gilman, President of the Ethics Resource Center (ERC).

The international community has been slow to accept the basic premise that good ethics and good business go hand-in-hand. UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, however, has personally pushed hard for the new Convention over the objections of many corrupt national regimes that are represented in the U.N. General Assembly. His success is important. It will encourage a greater focus on introducing anti-corruption rules in the World Trade Organization. At the same time, there are those who would like to see provisions in the U.S Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. The FCPA contains a loophole that allows U.S. corporations to make small payments to foreign government officials to overcome exceptional levels of bureaucratic red tape. Today, this allowance is an increasing embarrassment. It is far harder, for example, for a U.S. firm to get an environmental permit in the U.S. (let alone a work permit for a foreign national) than in many other countries around the globe-but there would be outrage here if foreign companies sought to bribe U.S. EPA and Immigration Department officials.

The UN Convention recognizes that bribery, like dancing the tango, takes two partners. The bribe-payers and the bribe-takers both need to be exposed. The UN can be a key player because it alone has the influence and the membership to see that the governments of those countries where bribery of public officials is most common-the countries of Central and Eastern Europe and the developing nations-are now monitored and challenged. The new UN Convention calls on these governments to replace secrecy with transparency in their public procurement practices and dealings with the private sector. It challenges corporations across the globe to refrain from kick-backs and bribes in all of their transactions, be these with governments and other firms.

The facts show that people and businesses are fed-up with corruption. U.S. business has been very active in promoting anti-corruption actions across the globe. Public opinion polls in scores of countries show that the public at large views bribery as the primary political problem-it dominated recent elections, for example, from Argentina to Georgia to Kenya.

Now, the U.S. Congress should lead the way and be the first to ratify the UN Convention. And, it should end facilitating payments in the FCPA. Its not just that this would be true to the tradition of U.S. leadership in this area, but also because it would symbolize America's profound support for business integrity. Such a symbol is now overdue given the soiled reputation that Corporate America has in many parts of the world in the aftermath of business scandals embracing Enron, WorldCom, Tyco and many others.