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WASHINGTON - Export-Import Bank of the United States (EXIM) President and Chairman of the Board of Directors Kimberly A. Reed today participated in a virtual "Business Beyond Borders: International Exports" event with more than 50 members of the Greater Houston Partnership.

The discussion was moderated by John Cypher, Senior Director for the Americas at the Greater Houston Partnership, and Chairman Reed was joined on the call by the Honorable Eduardo Aguirre, Chairman and CEO of the Atlantic Partners Group, former U.S. Ambassador to Spain and Andorra, and Acting Chairman of EXIM during the George W. Bush Administration. EXIM's Chief Banking Officer Stephen Renna and Managing Director of Global Energy in the Project Finance Division Paula Swain also participated in the discussion.

"For 180 years, the Greater Houston Partnership-now 1,100 businesses strong-has been an important partner for EXIM and has made the city and region a great place to live, build a business, and support U.S. jobs," said Chairman Reed. "It was an honor to visit the Port of Houston and meet with area businesses last October and continue that conversation today. About 17 percent of the region's economy is tied to exports and over 5,000 Houston-area companies do business abroad. EXIM is committed to helping even more Houston businesses expand further into foreign markets."

"Houston is a global manufacturing and logistics hub and the nation's top metro exporter. The future success of our region's export economy relies on a strong and reliable EXIM," said Ambassador Aguirre, Co-Chair of the Greater Houston Partnership's International Investment and Trade Advisory Committee. "We applaud EXIM's initiative in creating flexible programs to support exporters during these unprecedented times."

In her remarks, Chairman Reed discussed EXIM's new Program on China and Transformational Exports, established in EXIM's historic reauthorization, which is intended to help level the playing field for U.S. exporters and workers by directly neutralizing export subsidies for competing goods and services offered by the People's Republic of China. In May, EXIM launched its "Strengthening American Competitiveness" initiative, beginning with a series of teleconferences with American businesses and stakeholders. A full schedule of upcoming teleconferences and recordings of previous events can be found here.

Chairman Reed also outlined EXIM's COVID-19 relief measures, and reaffirmed EXIM's continuing commitment to supporting U.S. businesses of all sizes that export as the United States reopens and the American economy rebounds.

ABOUT EXIM:

EXIM is an independent federal agency that promotes and supports American jobs by providing competitive and necessary export credit to support sales of U.S. goods and services to international buyers. A robust EXIM can level the global playing field for U.S. exporters when they compete against foreign companies that receive support from their governments. EXIM also contributes to U.S. economic growth by helping to create and sustain hundreds of thousands of jobs in exporting businesses and their supply chains across the United States. In recent years, approximately 90 percent of the total number of the agency's authorizations has directly supported small businesses. Since 1992, EXIM has generated more than $9 billion for the U.S. Treasury for repayment of U.S. debt.

For more information about EXIM, please visit www.exim.gov.