Trade Policy News

The House took the first step today to save President Obama’s trade agenda when it granted him negotiating power over a legacy-building deal with 11 Pacific Rim nations. In the first part of an elaborate strategy by Republican leadership, the House voted 218-208 for Trade Promotion Authority, legislation that would make it easier for Obama…

Supporters of the Export-Import Bank cheered last week when the majority of United States senators voted in favor of reauthorizing the embattled agency. However, the vote also demonstrated growing opposition to the bank among Republican senators—a trend that has evolved in recent years. Since 1992, opposition to Ex-Im has grown substantially among Republicans in the…

President Obama’s last-minute push to whip votes for his trade bill backfired Friday as the House of Representatives killed a related measure providing aid to workers displaced by trade. The legislation was critical to the president’s pursuit of greater authority to negotiate trade agreements. The 126-to-302 vote marked a failure for Obama after forging an…

As its expiration date nears, the Export-Import Bank’s biggest beneficiaries and supporters are warning that Ex-Im’s end could be bad for business. But what would actually happen if the bank were not reauthorized by June 30? “American exports won’t stop on July 1,” Dan Holler, spokesman for Heritage Action for America, told The Daily Signal….

Supporters of the embattled Export-Import Bank argue the bank helps small businesses move into global markets and remain competitive. But a California-based company is speaking out about how the agency provided its competitors with an unfair advantage. “The winners should prevail by playing the game better than others, not by forcing taxpayers to give them…

Just two weeks before the controversial Export-Import Bank’s charter expires, members of Congress today criticized the bank’s top official for pursuing a deal in which the bank—and taxpayers—could be on the hook for more than $100 million. Reps. Mick Mulvaney, R-S.C., and Bill Huizenga, R-Mich., repeatedly questioned Ex-Im Chairman Fred Hochberg on bank loans awarded…

A new report that takes a deep dive into the Export-Import Bank’s transactions found that in addition to heavily subsidizing large corporations, the government agency benefited some small businesses while pushing others out of the market. It also rewarded a former employee who pleaded guilty for bribery with a six-figure salary and bonuses. Open the…

The Senate passed trade legislation and blocked a bill that would curb the federal government’s bulk collection of phone records before leaving town on a week-long Memorial Day recess. In a vote late on Friday evening, the Senate approved Trade Promotion Authority, 62-37. It gives President Obama the authority to negotiate trade deals with other nations, and then…

Some members of the U.S. House's Republican Study Committee are bucking the committee’s opposition to the Export-Import Bank and instead expressing steadfast support for the bank’s reauthorization. The Republican Study Committee today announced its opposition to the Export-Import Bank and called on Congress to allow its charter to expire on June 30. “Federal bureaucrats should not be…

For Induction Innovations of Elgin, Ill., the services provided by the Export-Import Bank seemed perfect for a small business. But after purchasing an insurance policy to protect its exports, the company of just 29 employees found itself left with a “bitter taste” from the bank after an overseas buyer failed to pay. “It was not…

Many of the Export-Import Bank’s biggest supporters argue the controversial agency creates jobs. But does it really? The Daily Signal reached out to the bank’s biggest supporters—Exporters for Ex-Im, American Action Forum, National Association of Manufacturers, U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the Bankers Association for Finance and Trade—to ask whether Ex-Im creates jobs and, if…

There’s been a lot of talk about the Export-Import Bank in the news lately, with debate about the 80-year-old agency ramping up as Congress nears the June 30 deadline for reauthorization. The debate on Ex-Im’s future has also expanded to the campaign trail, where the prospective 2016 presidential field is weighing in on the bank….

House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., tells The Daily Signal that it’s time to “wind down” the Export-Import Bank. “This is a place the speaker [John Boehner] and I disagree upon,” McCarthy says. “I think this is an opportunity to wind down the bank because I think private sector can fill that void.” The Export-Important…

Bobby Jindal has become the latest Republican presidential hopeful to call for the end of a federal agency that makes taxpayer-backed loans to foreign businesses and countries to buy U.S. products. “I don’t like … the federal government saying we’re going to decide which companies, which countries to select to help,” the Louisiana governor said,…

For two groups on opposing sides of the political spectrum, requests to the Export-Import Bank for records under the Freedom of Information Act yield different results. In November 2013, Americans for Limited Government filed a Freedom of Information Act request for correspondence between a consulting firm with ties to the Clinton administration and Export-Import Bank…

Policymakers are currently considering the future of the Export-Import Bank, a little-known government agency that provides taxpayer-backed loans and loan guarantees to foreign countries and companies for the purchase of U.S. products. The bank’s charter expires June 30, and as Congress inches closer to its deadline on whether Ex-Im should be reauthorized, the debate over…

A group of 40 conservative lawmakers collectively known as the House Freedom Caucus have come out in opposition to the controversial Export-Import Bank, joining Republican presidential candidates and a legion of conservative groups speaking out against the agency’s reauthorization. “The Ex-Im Bank financially supports less than 2 percent of U.S. exports and supports mega-corporations at the…

An unfulfilled request for information—pending for over 500 days —on the relationship between the Export-Import Bank and a consulting firm with ties to the Clinton administration has garnered the attention of the House Financial Services Committee’s oversight arm. In a letter obtained by The Daily Signal, Rep. Sean Duffy, R-Wis., requested more information from Export-Import…

With less than 70 days to go before the Export-Import Bank’s charter expires, the countdown on determining the 80-year-old’s agency is underway. To push Congress to reauthorize the Export-Import Bank, three lawmakers urged hundreds of the agency’s supporters in Washington, D.C., for Ex-Im’s annual conference to lobby in favor of its existence. Those lawmakers were…