Ex-Im Bank Uses Taxpayer-Backed Money to Finance a Foreign Deal that Already Happened
Will this presidential election be the most important in American history?
Tim Carney at the Washington Examiner continues to chip away at the many fallacies deal-makers use to justify the existence of the outdated and crony Export-Import Bank. He started an “Export-Import Bank Deal of the Day,” which will be updated daily until the bank’s charter expires on June 30.
This one is a head scratcher… Carney writes:
Siemens announced on Sept. 20, 2014 that it had “received an order from Spanish wind developer Cobra Energia for the supply, delivery and commissioning of a total of 11 wind turbines with a total capacity of 32.1 megawatts.” This was for the Marcona wind farm, in southern Peru.
The Marcona wind farm began operating in April 2014, according to Natixis, the French firm that helped line up all the financing for the two wind farms.
Three months later, on May 2, 2014, Siemens announced the second sale, for the adjacent Tres Hermanas wind farm, adding 25 wind turbines. Construction on that wind farm began in July, according to Energy Monitor Worldwide, a trade publication.
A month later, Ex-Im approved the taxpayer cash to the Spanish developer.
Ex-Im Myths Exploded
1) The sales Ex-Im finances could not happen without Ex-Im: This sale had already happened.
2) Foreign manufacturers want Ex-Im to go away: Siemens is a German company, and a top recipient of financing from Europe’s Ex-Ims.
The Export-Import Bank is a platform for government to pick winners and losers, and does nothing to preserve America’s competitive advantage in the global marketplace. If Congress is serious about helping businesses and growing the economy, they should lower the tax and regulatory burdens that are preventing them from thriving the marketplace and creating more jobs.
