General Electric to shift engine plant to Canada, creating 350 jobs

(Globe & Mail, Toronto, 28 September 2015) General Electric Co. is planning to build a state-of the art $265-million (U.S.) engine plant in Canada, as it shifts more business out of the United States following the collapse of U.S. government-sponsored export financing. GE said Monday it will close down its operation that makes gas-powered engines in Wisconsin and construct a plant in Canada, creating 350 new jobs there. In mid-September GE said it would invest $26-million in an aircraft engine facility in Winnipeg, including a major upgrade to a massive wind tunnel used for testing jet engines. GE says it is making the moves because it can no longer get U.S. export credit financing and is currently bidding on $11-billion of projects that must have export financing in order to be completed. GE also recently announced an agreement with the UK export credit agency UK Export Finance to access export financing for up to $12 Billion. [It is not yet clear if such efforts are part of an effort to re-establish US export credit financing blocked by the US Republican Tea Party faction, or to stimulate competition amongst OECD ECAs to further sweeten official subsidies to exporting corporations.]