Index for March 2011

Volume 10, Issue 3

  • (The Corner House, Devon, 9 March 2011) A BP-led consortium is breaking international rules governing the human rights responsibilities of multinational companies in its operations on the controversial Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline, the UK Government ruled today. The ruling follows a Complaint lodged under the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises by six groups in April 2003. The UK government backed the pipeline in 2004 through its Export Credits Guarantee Department (ECGD).
  • (Europa, Brussels, 23 February 2011) The European Commission has opened in-depth investigations to examine whether capital injections granted to Ducroire of Belgium and SACE BT of Italy by their respective State-owned parent entities, were in line with EU state aid rules.
  • (Europolitics, Brussels, 2 March 2011) The EC has authorised the extension of a Danish scheme for short-term export credit to cover all EU and OECD countries. The Commission found the prolongation of the scheme, initially approved on 6 May 2009 and now prolonged until 31 December 2011, to be in line with the conditions of its temporary framework for state aid measures to support access to finance in the current financial and economic crisis. In particular, Denmark provided recent evidence that short-term export credit insurance cover on private markets is still unavailable. Approval was also given to prolongation of the French short-term credit insurance scheme on 30 March 2011.
  • (LondonSE1, London, 1 March 2011) Campaigners, dressed as maids, gathered at a summit of export credit agencies and traders held at the Hilton hotel in central London to demand that governments "clean up their exports". "Lax international trading standards mean government export credit agencies across the world are using public money to back private business deals which fuel human rights abuses, environmental destruction, corruption and poverty," claims the campaign.
  • (AvioNews, Rome, 28 February 2011) OECD secretary-general Angel Gurría has invited China and Russia to join other countries in implementing a new set of international rules on aircraft financing. Substantial updates from a 2007 agreement include: unification of the terms under which export credit support is offered to large and regional aircraft; creation of a maximum 12-year term for export credit support; standardization of the risk rating system and unification of underwriting standards. Middle East airlines are likely to be hit by higher borrowing costs for aircraft purchases under these rules designed to put an end to a controversy that has dogged the industry for more than a year.
  • (US Daily, Montana, 11 March 2011) President Obama on Friday ordered a 90-day study into whether a dozen government agencies that promote exports could be better organized to reduce costs and increase efficiency. 12 different agencies, including the US Export-Import Bank, are involved in trade programmes. Some lobby groups feel the government’s ability to make policy and implement programs that promote trade competitiveness is very fragmented.
  • (Banking Business Review, London, 18 March 2011) J.P. Morgan has signed a landmark agreement with China’s Export & Credit Insurance Corporation ("SINOSURE") to provide a wide range of trade finance solutions to Chinese exporters, and will assist these enterprises by providing financing for their trade finance operations. SINOSURE will provide insurance cover to J.P. Morgan on export Letters of Credit issued by financial institutions globally in favor of Chinese companies for up to 2 years.
  • (Bloomberg, New York, 28 March 2011) The Arab Fund for Economic and Social Development signed two loan agreements with Sudan worth 100 million Kuwaiti dinars ($360 million) to help fund an airport in Khartoum and two dams in eastern Sudan. Several other regional funds have pledged to give loans to the project, including the Saudi Fund for Development, the Kuwait Fund for Arab Economic Development, the Export-Import Bank of China and the Export Credit Bank of Turkey. Sudan has been classified by the U.S. as a sponsor of terrorism and been subject to economic sanctions since 1997. The country relies on investments and loans from Persian Gulf countries, China and India.

Volume 10, Issue 4