The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (http://bit.ly/1h3XeWC) reports GE says it plans to build a $265 million factory in Canada over the next 20 months.
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General Electric Co said on Monday it will move production of large, gas-powered engines to Canada from Waukesha, Wisconsin, along with 350 jobs, to access export financing no longer available in the United States.
Yet the Export-Import Bank, dwarfed by the Pentagon and most federal agencies, is at the center of a brawl pitting USA companies against a determined band of congressional Republicans and their allies at conservative organizations.
GE says that financing from an export credit agency like Ex-Im is required for some $11 billion worth of projects for which it is preparing bids, ranging from power turbines and generation equipment to aircraft engines.
GE’s announcement, “could be seen as the latest sign of USA exporters’ unhappiness at the winding down of the U.S. Export-Import bank, which lent money to foreign customers of US exporters”, states the article.
GE already has around 6,500 workers in Canada, Mr. Rice said, and already has used Canada’s export financing entity to support past sales, the company said. “Without it, we can not compete and our customers may be forced to select other providers”.
GE Vice Chairman John Rice told Reuters that foreign export credit agencies are “rolling out the red carpet” for the manufacturer and expanding its capacity to offer financing and loan guarantees to foreign customers.
GE pointed out that it is now creating jobs and giving an economic boost to other countries instead of the U.S. The company two weeks ago also announced a deal with France’s export credit agency to partner on power and water projects that are expected to create 400 French jobs, Thurlow said. “In a slow growth and volatile world, we must go where the markets are and compete in over 170 countries”, Rice said.
The facility, to open in about 20 months, can be expanded to provide flexible manufacturing capacity to support other GE businesses, including engines for railroad locomotives, GE said.
Most of the company’s 350 manufacturing employees in Waukesha are represented by the global Association of Machinists.
“Killing the bank means thousands of U.S.jobs will be needlessly sacrificed for an extreme political agenda”, he said.
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Union spokesperson Frank Larkin said the U.S. Export-Import Bank “was one of those rare government programs that worked as intended; it protected American jobs and returned a profit to the U.S. Treasury”.
