Exchange With Secretary of Commerce Richardson on Establishing the Task Force on Questionable Corporate Payments Abroad.

I HAVE just signed the necessary documents establishing a Cabinet-level task force to undertake a very comprehensive study of the payments by American corporations overseas. I have appointed the Secretary of Commerce, Elliot Richardson, to be the Chairman of the Cabinet-level task force. It is not a group that will undertake the enforcement, but it will be a task force that will study the very broad ramifications--and they are very broad--in this very delicate field.

The Secretary of Commerce, because of his service as Attorney General, Secretary of Defense, as well as his opportunity to serve over in Great Britain, in his new post, I think is uniquely qualified for the very important assignment.

I will be getting periodic reports on a regular basis, and policy decisions will be made as opportune, based on the study.

You've got a big job, Elliot, and I know it is in good hands.

SECRETARY RICHARDSON. Thank you, Mr. President.

Certainly, the members that you have appointed to this task force are the people in the government who have concerns in one way or another with these questionable payments. We will, as you have asked us to do, be giving you progress reports, looking toward our final recommendations before the end of the calendar year.

And as you have emphasized in our own statement, the problem really is how we arrive at clear, enforceable standards to prevent such questionable practices in the future. We certainly won't be undertaking to investigate the facts. What we need really is a picture of the ramifications of the problem that we can get from the SEC, the IRS, and the other agencies that are charged with that responsibility, and then use that information as the basis for examining the policy implications.

THE PRESIDENT. Thank you very much.

I think the American people will be very anxious to have a comprehensive government policy to avoid the problems that we have had in the last few years in an area that involves our economy, involves our foreign relations--it involves the enforcement of civil as well as criminal proceedings.

So, I look forward to the first report and the final report.

SECRETARY RICHARDSON. Thank you, Mr. President.

THE PRESIDENT. Thank you all very much.