Less than a week after Guyana became a member of the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI), the United States has withdrawn as an implementing country and this can have significant impacts on the openness of this country’s relationship with ExxonMobil.
The Trump administration announced to EITI board its decision to withdraw via letter last Thursday. In the letter the director of the U.S. Office of Natural Resources Revenue, Gregory J. Gould, wrote that while the U.S. remains committed to fighting corruption “it is clear that domestic implementation of EITI does not fully account for the U.S. legal framework.”
The letter adds that “effective immediately” the United States was withdrawing as an EITI implementing country.
