GENEVA/LONDON, May 22 (Reuters) - The UK and Frenchgovernments are set to join a global initiative that willrequire oil and mining firms to comply with new disclosuremeasures aimed at reducing corruption, sources involved in theprocess said on Wednesday.
The Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) hasstakeholders in the public and private sectors and requiresresource companies to disclose payments made to governments.
EITI terms are not legally binding, but member countriesthat fall short of requirements can be suspended from theprocess, leading to political embarrassment.
Britain, currently chairing the Group of Eight majoreconomies and home to resource firms such as Rio Tinto and BP, has said that transparency will be one of thefocus areas for the G8 summit in June.
"They are joining for practice-what-you-preach reasons. It'shard to tell countries to do EITI when you're not doing ityourself," one of the sources said.
Global pressure to increase transparency in mining andresources has been growing, and the United States has alreadypassed regulations that require U.S.-registered companies todisclose payments made to governments for access to resources.
The American Petroleum Institute opposed the U.S. measuresand is challenging the regulations in the U.S. appeals court.
The EITI, supported by the World Bank as well asresource-rich countries such as oil producer Nigeria, agreed toa new global transparency standard at a meeting in Sydney onWednesday.
This aims to strengthen reporting standards by breaking downdata by payment type, project and company.
BP (BP.)
Rio Tinto (RIO)
