(Reuters) - The United States has withdrawn as an implementing country from the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI), an international initiative to account for revenues from extractive industries, including the global oil sector and mining.

​

In a letter to the EITI board on Thursday, the Director of the U.S. Office of Natural Resources Revenue, Gregory J. Gould, wrote that “effective immediately” the United States was withdrawing as an EITI Implementing country.

​

He wrote that while the U.S. remains committed to fighting corruption “it is clear that domestic implementation of EITI does not fully account for the U.S. legal framework.”

​

EITI was launched in 2002 in the hopes of making an international transparency standard for countries with extractive industries.

The U.S. Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative was not immediately available for comment.