Letter in support of the Export-Import Bank Reauthorization Act of 2011

September 7, 2011

The Honorable Tim Johnson
Chairman
Committee on Banking, Housing,
and Urban Affairs
United States Senate
Washington, DC 20510

The Honorable Richard Shelby
Ranking Member
Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs
United States Senate
Washington, DC 20510

Dear Chairman Johnson and Ranking Member Shelby:

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce— the world’s largest business federation, representing the interests of more than three million businesses of all sizes, sectors, and regions— strongly supports the Export-Import Bank Reauthorization Act of 2011, and we urge the Committee to favorably report this legislation to the full Senate for consideration.

The Chamber strongly supports the goal set by President Obama to double U.S. exports by 2014. Boosting exports is one of the most promising avenues to creating jobs for the nearly 14 million Americans who are currently unemployed. The Export-Import Bank of the United States (Ex-Im) must play a leading role in this effort to increase exports, create American jobs, and enhance U.S. competitiveness.

Ex-Im has supported over $400 billion in U.S. exports in the past 70 years. It helps to cover critical trade finance gaps by providing loan guarantees, export credit insurance, and direct loans for U.S. exports in developing markets where commercial-bank financing is unavailable or insufficient. In Fiscal Year 2010, Ex-Im supported an estimated $33 billion in export sales that sustained 227,000 U.S. jobs at over 3,300 companies.

Far from being a drain on the U.S. Treasury, Ex-Im is a self sustaining agency which operates at no cost to the taxpayer. Since 1992, the Ex-Im has returned $4.5 billion to the Treasury above all costs and loss reserves.

Ex-Im enables U.S. companies large and small to turn export opportunities into real sales that help to maintain and create U.S. jobs and contribute to a stronger national economy. Ex-Im’s services are particularly important to U.S. small and medium-sized businesses, more than 280,000 of which have joined the ranks of America’s exporters.

Failure to reauthorize Ex-Im would amount to unilateral disarmament in the face of other nations’ aggressive trade finance programs. Foreign-headquartered corporations are often armed with substantial, attractive government-backed export finance packages. For example, the export credit agency in Canada has extended three times as much export financing as Ex-Im; Japan more than five times; and China an estimated eleven times. Failure to approve this reauthorization legislation would only put U.S. exporters at a sharper disadvantage.

The U.S. Chamber strongly urges the committee to favorably report this legislation to reauthorize the Export-Import Bank of the United States.

Sincerely,

R. Bruce Josten

cc: Members of the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs