And it's not a roundabout way to subsidize the purchase of Boeing, Caterpillar, and other products that wouldn't be competetive on the global market? If not, why does it exist? There certainly was a lot of whining when people started talking about shutting it down.
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No American, Canadian, French, German, Japanese, Italian, British, Spanish, Belgian, Netherlands, or Scandinavian products would be competitive on the world stage without their export credit agencies (ECAs). They're a major contributor to world trade, especially for smaller companies. Regarding larger companies, it's the cost of admission to world markets. Without our ECA, the Ex-im, Boeing would be reduced to domestic sales, while Airbus ruled the world. Cat would go under. US industry would lose much of its foreign markets.
Here's a list of them:
The US economy depends heavily on our Ex-im. We export $1.5 Trillion in goods and services. That would be slashed to a fraction of its current rate without it.
The fact is that private banks would not deal with smaller countries or smaller companies, because they're averse to risk they can't pawn off onto the government (heads I win, tails you lose). But those companies and countries, collectively, make up a large part of international trade.