Money spent for corruption was tax deductable in Germany until a few years ago. Though only when you used it on a non-German or outside Germany or so. The reason ran along the lines of `Everyone else is doing it, so we just level the playing field for German companies.' I am glad this hypocrisy ended.
The U.S. was one of the first nations to make it illegal for its own citizens to pay bribes overseas with the 1977 Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. The bill passed even though the US knew we'd lose business overseas. It was also very steady U.S. pressure that helped move Europe to do the same a couple decades later-- this was on the top of the U.S. trade agenda with Europe for a long time.
