Export Development Canada 'reforms overdue'
(CanWest News Service, Toronto, 12 December 2007) It's time for Export Development Canada to begin to withdraw from the short-term export credit insurance business, says the C.D. Howe Institute. The business think-tank says narrowing the Crown corporation's activities would improve competition in the export insurance business. The EDC now controls 60% of that market, and a coming legislative review offers the opportunity to rethink that policy, it says. Canada is unique from most other OECD countries in maintaining a dominating state-owned enterprise. "The privatization of EDC's short-term insurance portfolio could easily be implemented," the group says. "Government, however, may continue to play a role in long-term insurance and trade financing, especially in risky political environments," the think-tank added. (CNW, Toronto, 11 December 2007) In Europe, private insurers account for 95 percent of short-term export credit insurance. Some countries, such as the United Kingdom and Australia, have privatized much of the previously government-administered programs.