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The Export-Import Bank is increasingly instrumental to U.S. national security interests and its importance is expected to continue regardless of the looming change in administration, current and former bank officials told Inside U.S. Trade.
The Export-Import Bank’s board of directors on Thursday voted to lower the content threshold for the financing of a specific set of high-tech sectors in an effort to increase U.S. industrial competitiveness against China.
The advisory committee wants “to better level the playing field with our foreign allies and competitors within the OECD such as Japan and the United Kingdom.”
Comments are due by Dec. 14.
China’s Foreign Ministry on Tuesday disputed U.S. Export-Import Bank President Kimberly Reed’s claims that Beijing’s export financing practices undermine fair and free market competition.
Rep. Andy Barr (R-KY), eyeing larger and “more aggressive deals” under the Export-Import Bank’s novel China program, last week promoted new legislation he said would, in part, relax domestic content requirements for export financing in the high-tech industry.
The bank this week held its final teleconference to inform an effort to boost U.S. competitiveness against China.
Biomedical sciences industry executives told Export-Import Bank officials last week that the agency should rethink its U.S. content policy by factoring intellectual property and services into domestic content calculations.
Space technology industry executives last week told Export-Import Bank officials the agency should review its treatment of risk in their sector to allow for more flexibility when deciding whether to provide financing.
The Export-Import Bank is seeking industry input on how it might change its U.S. content requirement for the technology sector so companies can receive more financing and be more competitive against China, agency officials said on Thursday.
Renewable energy companies want the Export-Import Bank to broaden the agency’s U.S. content requirements so more of their contracts can qualify for financing and companies can better compete with China, industry representatives said during a bank teleconference this week.
The “Strengthening American Competitiveness” push will begin with a series of teleconferences featuring U.S. businesses; the first is set for Thursday.
The bank called the effort “one of the most significant programs in EXIM’s 86-year history.”
U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer on Thursday called the Export-Import Bank more important than ever as the agency roll outs initiatives to help U.S. companies respond to the coronavirus pandemic.
The economic downturn already underway as the world struggles to fight the coronavirus pandemic will engender a sharp contraction of U.S. and global trade flows that economists say could be mitigated -- somewhat -- by aggressive stimulus measures.
“We want all our customers -- especially those U.S. exporters who are small business owners -- and their lenders to be able to look out for their employees and businesses without worrying about meeting EXIM’s deadline.”
The House on Tuesday passed a government spending bill that would reauthorize the Export-Import Bank for seven years, create a program to boost U.S. competitiveness against China and allow presidential Cabinet members to step in and serve on the bank’s board temporarily at times when it would otherwise lack a quorum.
The Senate is likely to take up the bill before government funding expires on Thursday.
The House on Friday approved Financial Services Committee Chair Maxine Waters’ (D-CA) bill to reauthorize the Export-Import Bank for 10 years.