The American Chamber of Commerce in a letter to Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze and Parliament Speaker Shalva Papuashvili supports the demand of people to withdraw the foreign agent bill.
According to them this will undermine Georgia’s EU membership aspirations if passed in its present form. The American Chamber of Commerce is the largest business association of Georgia having in it the Georgian and international businesses.
The letter of the chamber also noted that the intention of the bill to label all foreign support as ‘foreign power interest’ has nothing to do with transparency. Moreover if the real intentionn is transparency then there will be a need to change the existing structures of corporate governance and financial reporting.”
At the same time the letter emphasizes that the proposed law does not meet international standards of transparency. It also added that in modern democracies like the U.S and the EU, it is true that foreign lobbyists are often required to register as such. But despite the registration the laws do not target CSOs and do not apply to all who used to receive the funds from outside the country.
The letter said the FARA only applies to lobbyists, public relations firms, and law firms in USA that are hired by a foreign power to act as its agent. The letter further stressed that the large negative impact that this law will cause will be huge and the damages cannot be reversed.
The Georgian Parliament is debating today the draft bill. The debate is being done despite two days of massive protests by thousands of citizens against the law and appeals by international partners as well as Georgian opposition MPs and politicians for the law to be withdrawn.
On the other hand law enforcement agencies have already warned the protesters not to use any violent measures during the protest against the bill. They also said that strict action would be taken if the protestor used any violence.
