Readout from EXIM Chairman Kimberly Reed's Meeting with U.S. Ambassador Kip Tom, Permanent Representative to the United Nations Agencies for Food and Agriculture
WASHINGTON - President and Chairman of the Export-Import Bank of the United States (EXIM) Kimberly A. Reed met today via teleconference with U.S. Permanent Representative to the United Nations Agencies for Food and Agriculture Ambassador Kip Tom to address the topic of food security, which remains a very important issue as the United States and world respond to the COVID-19 global pandemic.
During the meeting, Chairman Reed and Ambassador Tom discussed how EXIM can help America's farmers, ranchers, agriculture technology and equipment manufacturers, and related agribusiness supply chains export their high-quality goods and services around the world while also supporting U.S. jobs at home.
Chairman Reed also highlighted EXIM's historic seven-year reauthorization, which directs EXIM to establish a new Program on China and Transformational Exports. The program 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. The program also focuses on supporting U.S. innovation, employment, and technological standards globally in ten transformational export industries, including those important to agriculture and feeding a growing planet such as biotechnology, biomedical sciences, water treatment and sanitation, wireless communications, and other innovative industry exports.
Noting that more than half of global population growth between now and 2050 is expected to occur in Africa and the population of sub-Saharan Africa is projected to double during that time, EXIM's Sub-Saharan Africa Advisory Committee met in February to discuss how EXIM can support critical industries, including agriculture, in the region.
The headquarters of both the U.S. Permanent Representative to the United Nations Agencies for Food and Agriculture and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations are located in Rome, Italy. On April 10, 2020, President Donald J. Trump issued a Memorandum on Providing COVID-19 Assistance to the Italian Republic. As directed in the memorandum, the President of EXIM "may use available authorities to support the recovery of the Italian economy" and afterward, EXIM President and Chairman Reed stated that "EXIM stands ready to provide financing tools to support transactions that benefit our American exporters and workers while also helping Italy, one of our closest and oldest Allies, as they address the impact of COVID-19. The United States is a nation of generosity and compassion, and EXIM stands ready to help the people of Italy who face a long road ahead to economic recovery."
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.