Rep. Jordan demands update on Export Bank talks

Conservatives fought hard to try to put the Export-Import Bank on the road to extinction last spring and they are now clamoring for a progress update from the Obama administration on talks to end global export subsidies.

Republican Study Committee Chairman Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) asked Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner on Friday for an update this month. He is requesting information on talks to eliminate export subsidies and on negotiations to end aircraft financing in particular.

Boeing is the biggest beneficiary of Ex-Im finance. 

“Although the 180-day deadline for the above reports is not until late November, we at the Republican Study Committee...would appreciate a quick status update in October to ensure the negotiations are proceeding in a timely fashion,” Jordan wrote. 

Under the May law reauthorizing the Export-Import Bank, Geithner has until November to deliver a progress report so it is not clear if there will be any answer soon. 

In May, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) and House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) struck a compromise to keep the doors of the Ex-Im Bank until Sept. 30, 2014.   The deal, one of the few bipartisan agreements in this Congress, raised the loan limit of the taxpayer-backed bank to $140 billion, but it included language requiring the administration to start talks aimed at ended export subsidies. 

While the bank is self-funded, conservatives oppose export subsidies as market distorting. Ex-Im Bank supporters say that as long as Europe, China, Japan and others back their exports with loan guarantees for foreign buyers, the U.S. cannot unilaterally end them.

The Export-Import Bank on Friday referred all questions to Treasury. Treasury said it had not received the letter and would not say whether on the subsidy talks have even started yet. 

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