Supporters Defend Export-Import Bank Mission
March 27, 2012
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If the attacks on the U.S. Export-Import Bank are successful, and the agency is forced to limit its activities, thousands of U.S. jobs will be lost and billions in export-related economic activity will shift to foreign economies.
“Given the fragile economy and the need to create millions of manufacturing jobs, one would think that funding the Bank would be a no-brainer,” said IAM Director of Trade and Globalization Owen Herrnstadt and Robert E. Scott, EPI Director of Trade and Manufacturing Policy Research, who defend the bank in ‘Institutions That Support U.S. Jobs Should be Strengthened, not Gutted,’ a recent Huffington Post editorial.
“At the same time that the Ex-Im Bank’s mission and exposure limit are being attacked, there are also attempts to weaken the Bank’s domestic content requirements,” said Herrnstadt and Scott. “These efforts are dangerous and misguided. Greater domestic content means that a greater percentage of the product for export is made here in the United States by U.S. workers. If anything, the Bank’s domestic content requirement should be strengthened.
“The Ex-Im Bank’s mission is ‘to assist in financing the export of U.S. goods and services to international markets, enabling large and small companies to turn export opportunities into real sales that help to maintain and create U.S. jobs and contribute to a stronger national economy.’ Our economy is improving, but it is still fragile,” concludes the editorial. “Now is the time to strengthen, not weaken, institutions which support exports that support U.S. jobs.”
