This book assesses the politics and programs of the U.S. Export-Import Bank and their relevance to U.S. trade policy. Focusing on the direct loan program for large credits with maturities of more than five years, the authors evaluate the broad criteria employed by the Bank in its decision-making process and the resulting allocation of Bank resources. They also examine the distribution of Bank loans and subsidies across industries and relate this to key industry characteristics such as comparative advantage and export dependence. The problems faced by the Eximbank in recent years--high borrowing costs, intensified export credit competition, limited resources, increased risks, conflicting mandates to be competitive yet self-sustaining ---have given tremendous importance to the careful articulation of policy and administration of programs.

The authors find Bank policies to be broadly supportive of the U.S. trade policy goals, but also identify several areas of inconsistency and lack of definition and offer alternative means of specifying criteria to overcome these problems.