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WASHINGTON -Today U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo shared her insights into the Biden-Harris Administration's plan to 'Build Back Together' in a conversation with Greg Ip, Chief Economics Commentator for The Wall Street Journal during the first plenary session of the 2021 Annual Conference of the Export-Import Bank of the United States (EXIM), being held virtually September 21-23. In the conversation entitled "Expanding Global Opportunities for American Businesses," Raimondo focused on revitalizing domestic manufacturing and promoting U.S. economic strength on a global scale.

"We need to run faster in America to build back better and invest and have a big, bold offensive strategy to help us compete globally," said Raimondo. "We believe in globalization of trade and a global supply chain and doing business in a free-market way. We believe strongly in domestic investment in job training and infrastructure, in competitiveness, and working with our allies."

In the second plenary session, entitled "Strengthening American Supply Chains, "Ambassador Catherine A. Novelli, Senior Advisor at Shearwater Global, interviewed Peter Harrell, Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for International Economics and Competitiveness, White House National Security Council. Harrell discussed the importance of the domestic supply chain in the global marketplace and EXIM's role in promoting economic security.

"We have a whole range of initiatives we have been promoting and are continuing to promote to make America the world's leading place to do business, the world's leading place to manufacture things, the world's leading place to do your R&D, said Harrell. "I really think the EXIM Bank can be a key part of that for companies that are manufacturing things here in the United States. EXIM plays a critical role in our economic strategy going forward, especially at a time like this, supporting exporters in our country as they try and find new markets for American goods and services."

In addition to the plenary sessions, today's events featured discussions by EXIM and business leaders on a wide range of trade topics through five separate tracks: finance, China competition, ECAs, climate and small business. Topics included how EXIM is postured to help exporters directly neutralize the export support provided by the People's Republic of China (PRC) and advance the comparative leadership of the United States through direct exports in the transformational export areas; how export and development finance support can effectively achieve one-stop-shop financing solutions for global projects; and tactics on how to implement successful exporting strategies for small businesses.

EXIM and the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation (DFC) officials discussed working together with the goal of supporting jointly funded or supported transactions in the future by leveraging each agency's capacities to respond to an increasingly competitive marketplace, as well as financing imperatives each agency faces such as the climate challenge.

Interactive discussions among EXIM staff and conference participants covered the U.S. government's Power Africa initiative and opportunities for U.S. commercial engagement, the future of strategic economic competition, collaboration between EXIM and the U.S. Department of Agriculture on agriculture commodities exports, and cybersecurity and what businesses can do to protect themselves.

The focus of this year's EXIM Annual Conference is "Building Back Together." Throughout the conference, speakers and panel participants are sharing perspectives and guidance on how trade, exports, and sound economic policy can help America's economy and communities across the country build back stronger from the COVID-19 pandemic.

ABOUT EXIM:

The Export-Import Bank of the United States (EXIM) is the nation's official export credit agency with the mission of supporting American jobs by facilitating U.S. exports. To advance American competitiveness and assist U.S. businesses as they compete for global sales, EXIM offers financing including export credit insurance, working capital guarantees, loan guarantees, and direct loans. As an independent federal agency, EXIM contributes to U.S. economic growth by supporting tens of thousands of jobs in exporting businesses and their supply chains across the United States. Since 1992, EXIM has generated more than $9 billion for the U.S. Treasury for repayment of U.S. debt. Learn more at www.exim.gov.