General Electric CEO: "Doing Away With Ex-Im Bank Basically Clears the Field of Competition" for Overseas Rivals
If you’re keeping a tally of business leaders calling on House Republicans to reauthorize the Export-Import Bank before its charter expires on June 30, you can add one more to your list: General Electric CEO Jeffrey Immelt. Take a look at what he had to say about the consequences to America’s economic competiveness if the Bank’s charter expires – are Republicans listening?
From Bloomberg:
“General Electric Co. Chief Executive Officer Jeffrey Immelt threatened to move U.S. jobs overseas if Congress doesn’t reauthorize the Export-Import Bank’s charter, which expires at the end of June.”
“‘We’re not going to lose this business,’ Immelt said Wednesday to the Economic Club of Washington. ‘We’ll build these products in places where export credit financing is available.’”
“The loss of jobs is ‘mighty high price to pay for ideological purity,’ Immelt said.”
“GE, one of the top three public company exporters in the U.S., has much to lose if the Ex-Im bank disappears: its overseas customers received more than $973 million in credit assistance from the bank last year, according to an Ex-Im annual report.”
“If the bank’s charter lapses, ‘a few think tanks will send out alerts that they won,’ Immelt said. Meanwhile, in Berlin and elsewhere, foreign competitors ‘will have reason to celebrate.’”
“‘Doing away with Ex-Im Bank basically clears the field of competition’ for overseas rivals, he said.”
“Ex-Im proponents say most members of Congress would support reauthorizing the bank if they were allowed to vote on the issue. No vote is scheduled before the end of the month, though, which makes it likely the bank’s charter will lapse.”
“Immelt has previously said that if Congress allows the bank to die, GE may move work to other countries with export credit agencies.”
“‘If, God forbid, if it was ever something so stupid as that the Ex-Im went away, we’d just move production around and take advantage of other places,’ Immelt said at an industry conference on May 20.”
“About 1,800 jobs at GE, its suppliers and local businesses in 12 states are at risk without the bank’s financing, according to [GE spokeswoman Jessica] Taylor.”
From Politico:
“General Electric chief executive Jeff Immelt on Wednesday predicted economic catastrophe if the United States fails to extend the Export-Import Bank....”
“‘If we want to compete, this is what’s necessary to compete,’ Immelt said in an interview with POLITICO ahead of a speech on trade and the economy in Washington. ‘Regardless of any of this being a Republican win or a Democratic win, it’s a loss for the country. It makes us look small. it makes us look like we are not a power.’”
“Immelt said if Ex-Im is not renewed, GE will continue to be able to export, but many small and midsize businesses will not. And he rejected the argument made by many conservatives that the Ex-Im Bank — which will expire June 30 without new legislation — is not necessary and will be replaced by private-sector lending.”
“‘In a perfect world or in an economics class or think tank, you wouldn’t need things like the Export-Import. But there are 60 nations around the world doubling down on them right now,’ Immelt said. He added that GE, worth about $275 billion, would have to ‘move jobs from U.S. to countries that have export banks’ if Ex-Im is not renewed.”