diff --git a/ChangeLog b/ChangeLog
index acddff05a..b4c8773a2 100644
--- a/ChangeLog
+++ b/ChangeLog
@@ -4,7 +4,7 @@
 	Fail if the first "echo" fails.  Suppress diagnostics from "ls po/*.po"
 	since there might not be any .po files.
 	(WGET_COMMAND): Set to empty if wget doesn't
-	seem to be available.  Don't export; shouldn't be needed.
+	seem to be available.
 
 2006-08-26  Jim Meyering  <jim@meyering.net>
 
diff --git a/bootstrap b/bootstrap
index 17e07edaa..7afc71fc9 100755
--- a/bootstrap
+++ b/bootstrap
@@ -185,7 +185,7 @@ get_translations() {
 	printf "    rm -f %s/%s.po; }; } &&\n", subdir, lang
       }
       END { print ":" }
-    ' | sh;;
+    ' | WGET_COMMAND="$WGET_COMMAND" sh;;
   esac &&
   ls "$subdir"/*.po 2>/dev/null |
     sed 's|.*/||; s|\.po$||' >"$subdir/LINGUAS" &&