*EPF212 03/19/2002
Congress Clears Bill Extending Ex-Im Bank Authority One Month
(Leaders still working on long-term authorization measure) (410)

Washington -- The House of Representatives has given final passage to a bill temporarily extending authorization for the Export-Import Bank of the United States (Ex-Im Bank) to continue operating for another month.

The bill passed in the House by voice vote March 19 would extend Ex-Im's existing authority to April 30; the Senate passed the same bill March 14. The bill would give Congress time to complete long-term legislation.

Existing temporary authority is scheduled to expire March 31; Congress had passed that bill just before the previous four-year authorization expired September 30, 2001.

In October the House Financial Services Committee approved a new four-year reauthorization measure, but the full House has never considered it.

The full Senate passed a five-year reauthorization bill March 14 just after passing the one-month extension.

According to March 19 House debate, congressional leaders are now working out differences between the bills passed in the Senate and approved in the House committee, including their different expiration dates.

The House committee bill would change some existing policies. For example, in reaction to an Ex-Im Bank loan guarantee made to a Chinese steel mill that was subject to a U.S. antidumping investigation, the committee voted to prohibit the bank from making loans or loan guarantees to companies found in violation of U.S. trade laws.

The committee also voted to eliminate a section of the original bill that would have required a human rights assessment on Ex-Im loans of $10 million or more.

The Senate-passed bill tackles an issue concerning what is called "foreign market windows." Government-sponsored financial institutions, notably in Germany and Canada, have been providing their national exporters with financing at below-market rates. The governments argue that these institutions are not bound by Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) disciplines for national export-credit agencies.

The Senate bill would clarify that Ex-Im Bank has authority to match such foreign market window credits with below-market rates for competing U.S. exporters.

Senator Paul Sarbanes, Democratic chairman of the Banking Committee, said in March 14 Senate debate that Ex-Im Bank should have this matching authority "to allow U.S. exporters to compete on a level playing field and to direct the executive branch to seek negotiations in the OECD for multilateral disciplines and transparency for market windows financing."

(Distributed by the Office of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)

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