Doing business in Texas
Ex-Im Bank
Regarding “Ex-Im Bank: Boon or bust? (Page B9, June 25), the op-ed page presented a point and a counterpoint about the Export-Import Bank. One of those essays was from the vice president of a Texas-based small business that has used the bank, and the other from a Virginia-based thinktank economist who believes she knows what is best for Texas.
I had the honor to serve as the U.S. Maritime Administrator in the George W. Bush administration (2001-2005) and now as an executive in the shipping and exporting industry; it infuriates me to see the arguments put forth by Veronique de Rugy in her essay (“State’s exports won’t collapse if financing agency goes away”), particularly since she has never created a job anywhere, let alone in Texas.
The Ex-Im Bank helps Texas businesses, both large and small, open the door into markets across the globe. With no real firsthand experience competing for business in the international marketplace, de Rugy argues that it is a small percentage of Texas exports.
I contend that the limited role the bank plays is because it is the lender of last resort and fills a gap that private financing cannot fill.
The bank also gives U.S. companies a fair opportunity to compete for international business whenever their foreign competitors have access to their own Export Credit Agencies. If the bank is not reauthorized, thousands of U.S. jobs are at risk. I am currently working with projects that would lose billions in Texas revenues from the lapse of the bank’s charter.
Although the Chronicle gives equal word-count to each side, the real debate is not nearly as evenly divided: nearly every major business group and all Texas ports in the state support reauthorization, and thousands of letters have been written by Texas companies and individuals to Congress. The opposition stems from Washington-based think tanks that would rather kill a critical exporting tool and the thousands of jobs it supports, than stand up to their misguided financial contributors.
William Schubert, president, International Trade & Transportation, Inc.,
in Pinehurst