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What's New! Vol.
9, No. 1
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January 2010 - What's New! Indices - 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010
"What's New!" is a periodic update to keep you informed of the latest on the ECA Watch website. What's New! features a wide range of materials related to the reform of Export Credit Agencies (ECAs) including NGO publications and releases, news articles, commentaries and announcements about the policies and practices of ECAs and ECA-financed projects world-wide. If you would like to receive "What's New!" simply add your e-mail to the ECA-Action list at www.eca-watch.org today! Questions? Email info-at-eca-watch.org
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1) |
ECA Watch & Amnesty International outline OECD Common Approaches evaluation issues |
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ECA Watch urges G-20 not to exclude ECAs from fossil fuel subsidies analysis |
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Risky Business: Shining a spotlight on Australia's export credit agency |
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Export credit agencies to the rescue of trade finance |
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Developing countries want WTO study of protectionist impact of bailout & stimulus packages. |
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ECGD releases BTC Pipeline assessment documents |
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ECGD rules raise child labour fears |
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China continues to develop export credit insurance to support trade |
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ECAs come to the rescue of Boeing and Airbus |
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Iran's Export Guarantee Fund Eyes Berne Union Membership |
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11) |
Eskom signs R13bn (US$1.7Bn) loan agreement with Coface |
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12) |
Israeli Credit Insurance Company boosts exports by more than US$268 million |
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View Back Issues of What's New |
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| 1. |
ECA Watch & Amnesty International outline OECD Common Approaches evaluation issues (PDF) |
| (ECA Watch, Brussels, 12 January 2010) ECA Watch members and Amnesty International have submitted an outline of 14 issues that they wish to see covered in the 2010 review of the 2007 Revised OECD Council Recommendation on Common Approaches on the Environment and Officially Supported Export Credits. |
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ECA Watch urges G-20 not to exclude ECAs from fossil fuel subsidies analysis (PDF) |
| (ECA Watch, 22 January 2010) ECA Watch has requested that the analysis of fossil fuel subsidies to be prepared for the next G-20 summit, with a view to phasing them out, include a review of export credit subsidies, despite apparent efforts within the OECD to exclude ECAs from the scope of the analysis.. The OECD is itself considering inclusion of unproven "clean" coal and carbon capture technologies as eligible for enhanced ECA subsidies as "renewable" energies. A recent European Voice article noted that "public money is being poured into coal-fired power stations, coal mines, oil fields and similar projects via multilateral development banks and export credit agencies...and must be stopped." |
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Risky Business: Shining a spotlight on Australia's export credit agency |
| (Jubilee Australia, Sydney, December 2009) Risky Business shines a spotlight on the Export Finance & Insurance Corporation (EFIC), Australia's export credit agency, and its support of risky extractive projects in developing countries. The report aims to make EFIC more accountable to Australians, asking a number of tough questions surrounding EFIC’s social policies and its responsibilities to the Australian taxpayer. |
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Export credit agencies to the rescue of trade finance |
| (Trade Finance Magazine, London, 25 January 2010) What saved trade from collapsing totally during the global crisis? This column by World Bank experts argues that export credit agencies played a key role in stabilising the trade finance market, and thus helped reduce credit risks and allowed exporters to offer open account terms in competitive markets. |
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Developing countries want WTO study of protectionist impact of bailout & stimulus packages. |
| (Reuters, Geneva, 22 January 2010) Rich-country members of the World Trade Organisation have blocked calls by developing countries to examine the possible protectionist impact of bailouts and financial stimulus packages. As noted in What's New article #4 above, ECAs played a significant role in these packages. However, the WTO's Agreement on Subsidies and Countervailing Measures creates a loop-hole for ECA subsidies if they meet the OECD's poorly monitored Arrangement, a self-professed "Gentlemen's Agreement" designed to restrict a race to the bottom in export subsidies. Meanwhile, the EU and the US continue their dispute at the WTO over aircraft subsidies. (See article #9 below also.) |
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| 6. |
ECGD releases BTC Pipeline assessment documents |
| (The Corner House, Dorset, 29 January 2010) The UK's Export Credit Guarantee Department (ECGD) last year released a number of documents on the now completed Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) pipeline project. The Corner House has flagged some of the concerns raised by these materials: for example that the Business Principles Unit (BPU) of ECGD undertakes no analysis of the conflict risks of the projects it assesses, nor any analsyis of the financial risks arising from any environmental or social impacts. Another document, an analysis of local environmental laws, from which the developer was exempt, shows they are more stringent that those required of the developer under a specially-negotiated legal regime for the the pipeline, despite BTC Co. always having claimed that its standards were an improvement on host government standards. The documents are linked in the full text above. |
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ECGD rules raise child labour fears |
| .(Financial Times, London, 16 January 2010) British exporters backed by taxpayers' money would have greater freedom to use child workers and even forced labour abroad under a policy reversal floated by the Export Credits Guarantee Department...Nick Hildyard, researcher for The Corner House, a campaign group, said he had "real concerns" that the trend of loosening standards would offer exporters increasing opportunities to use child labour and bonded workers. |
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| 8. |
China continues to develop export credit insurance to support trade |
| (Foreign Affairs, Tampa, 5 January 2010) Just as China promotes domestic growth by combining state intervention with private investment..and believes it has managed to move millions of its people out of poverty, ...it is now applying this same policy strategy with a mixture of hard-nosed but clear-eyed self-interest to countries across Africa... Westerners too think they know what Africa needs to do in order to develop: liberalize markets, get prices right, promote democracy. The West sees huge Chinese aid packages to resource-rich countries that prop up pariah regimes...while China boasts of no-strings-attached policies that don't interfer with local government. Both are using export credits to promote their own industries, exports and industrial development models in resource rich Africa and with Chinese export credit reaching record levels, OECD ECAs are using Chinese competition as a reason to reduce their own due diligence on environmental and social standards, claiming they raise costs and make them uncompetitive. |
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| 9. |
ECAs come to the rescue of Boeing and Airbus |
| (Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation, Sydney, 21 January 2010) DVB Bank, a specialist in global transport finance, cautioned that the “lenders of last resort” – Export Credit Agencies – will again be crucial in the avoidance of a funding gap for commercial aircraft deliveries in 2010, after playing a major financing role last year... Airbus and Boeing delivered 979 aircraft between them in 2009, valued at an estimated USD66 billion by DVB Bank. Of this, ECAs provided a record USD21 billion, almost double the level of funding they provided for aircraft acquisitions in 2008. Meanwhile, Canada has run into opposition at the OECD from the US
and the EU over its plans to provide export credit financing
to foreign buyers of Bombardier's new 110-to-130-seat jetliner, which
is larger than its standard regional jet models. |
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| 10. |
Iran's Export Guarantee Fund Eyes Berne Union Membership |
| (FARS News Agency, Tehran, 19 January 2010) Managing Director of the Export Guarantee Fund of Iran (EGFI) Seyed Kamal Seyed-Ali announced that the fund has applied for membership in the International Union of Credit and Investment Insurers (Berne Union). Meanwhile,
Europeans have cut back on export credit guarantees for trade with Iran as a result of US pressure, and could cut them further, although Germany, Italy and Austria are reluctant, especially when their exporters are struggling in the global economic crisis. |
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Eskom signs R13bn (US$1.7Bn) loan agreement with Coface |
| (South Africa Info, Johannesburg, 5 January 2010) South African state power company Eskom has signed a loan agreement for R13-billion (US$1.7 B) with the French export credit agency Coface for the commissioning of its Medupi and Kusile power plants. Widespread protests have risen in South Africa at Eskom's proposed rate increases of 35% a year for 3 years which they claim is needed to
provide the base for raising the capital necessary for its R400-billion capital expenditure programme, despite additional bonds, export credit-agency and development-finance money. |
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Israeli Credit Insurance Company boosts exports by more than US$268 million |
| (Port2Port, Tel Aviv, 25 January 2010) The Israeli Credit Insurance Company - ICIC, provides over $12 billion worth of credit insurance services in 115 countries and predicts that the export support program will boost exports by more than NIS 1 billion (US$268 million) in 2010. As Israel approaches the final stage of being accepted as a full
member, the OECD is urging Israel to tackle three critical
issues regarding anti-corruption policy measures, in particular in the
defense industry; compliance with intellectual property legislation
common in OECD member countries; and the exclusion of statistics
relating to [the occupied] territories, which are not considered part of the country. |
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