3 Minutes to Read (Reuters) – WASHINGTON, June 30 (Reuters) – Even as total finance activity declined owing to the COVID-19 pandemic, the US Export-Import Bank indicated on Wednesday that it would stay far behind its global competitors in financing volume in 2020. EXIM said in its annual competition report to Congress that it granted $1.8 billion in official medium- and long-term export credit support for calendar 2020, compared to $18 billion for global leader China, $12.1 billion for France, $8.6 billion for Germany, and $5 billion for South Korea. China, the world’s top export credit provider, saw its funding volume drop last year from over $33 billion in 2019. For US exporters, EXIM offers direct loans, commercial loan guarantees, export credit insurance, and working capital guarantees. After conservative Republicans in Congress attempted to dissolve the institution in 2015, claiming that it provided “business welfare,” it is still recuperating from years of operating at a reduced capacity. The agency claimed here in 2014 that it had sanctioned $12.5 billion in medium- and long-term export credit support, in a year when China approved a total of $58 billion. In 2019, Congress granted EXIM a seven-year reauthorization, the longest in the agency’s 87-year history, and restored full board participation. It was able to resume funding significant agreements worth more than $10 million, such as commercial aircraft and power plants, as a result of this. EXIM claimed at the end of 2020 that it had a backlog of nearly $39 billion in projects awaiting approval in its financing pipeline. In a statement, EXIM’s acting vice chairman, James Cruse, stated, “EXIM is on the path back to being a leader in export credit and delivering the sort and scale of official MLT export credit needed to provide U.S. exporters and U.S. interests a fair shot at trade prospects in the years ahead.” (David Lawder contributed reporting, and Leslie Adler edited the piece.)/n
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