THE REPUBLICAN-LED US CONGRESS has killed a US securities disclosure rule aimed at curbing corruption at big oil, gas and mining companies by requiring them to publicly state the taxes and fees they pay to governments. Thepaper.cn commented on Sunday:

Approved last June, the US Securities and Exchange Commission's "extraction rule" requires oil, gas, mining and other companies to make public the taxes and other fees they pay local governments.

That is not to say, of course, US oil enterprises will be free to bribe foreign officials. But by calling the extraction rule "burdensome and costly" for energy companies and seeking to put it to rest, the Donald Trump administration is step-by-step lessening the anti-corruption supervision on overseas oil and gas companies.