Index for August 2014

Volume 13, Issue 8

  • (Climate Progress, Washington, 7 July 2014) Last December the Export-Import Bank announced it would stop financing coal-fired power plants abroad, with a few exceptions in the poorest countries in the world. Now, as political pressure in the US Congress puts the bank’s future in to question, those environmental guidelines are facing opposition in Congress. With a September 30 deadline for reauthorization, the efforts to reduce high carbon intensity projects are being used as political cover by far-right Republicans who have reversed course and decided to consider the bank as a form of corporate welfare after years of supporting it. Both of the working proposals in the House and Senate to renew the bank’s charter would reverse Ex-Im guidelines that prevent financing for overseas power plants.

  • (US General Accounting Office, Washington, 28 August 2014) The Export-Import Bank of the United States (Ex-Im) has policies for monitoring the end use of defense articles and services it finances, including documentation requirements that are reflected in its financing  agreements with borrowers. However, these policies do not specify what actions Ex-Im officials should take if the bank does not receive the required dual-use-related documents. The requirements for each transaction vary, and while Ex-Im had received most of the information it required in its credit agreements regarding the three dual-use transactions it financed in fiscal year 2012, some of the information it received was late.

  • (SME Times, New Delhi, 21 August 2014) Apex exporters body Federation of Indian Export Organizations (FIEO) has set an ambitious export targets of USD 350 billion for the current fiscal and USD 750 billion by 2018-19 and in order to achieve the desired export target, FIEO Chief Thursday said that the government should fix certain percentage of credit for small and medium enterprise (SME) exporters so that factors affecting such projections can be corrected and long term vision for exports is maintained.