Posted on March 6, 2025 by Justin Williams
The Trump administration has set a bold vision for America’s trade policy, economic security and U.S. energy dominance. To deliver, the federal government must unleash private-sector innovation and sharpen America’s competitive edge. An important but often underutilized tool in this effort is the U.S. Export-Import Bank (EXIM). Created in the wake of World War II to support U.S. exports and jobs, EXIM has been a force for helping American industry win at home and abroad. To continue this movement, it is key that EXIM is reauthorized in 2026, modernizing the agency and ensuring it advances America’s clean energy leadership on the world stage.
“EXIM supports American jobs, strengthens our manufacturing base and enhances our competitiveness in the global economy,” said ClearPath’s Niko McMurray during his testimony before the U.S. House Financial Services Committee. As McMurray pointed out, “These aren’t handouts, they are commercially oriented efforts that earn a return on investment (ROI) – $80 million back to taxpayers in 2024.” It is estimated that EXIM has returned $9.7 billion in revenues to the U.S. Department of Treasury since 1992, underscoring EXIM’s ability to support America’s private sector while providing a positive ROI for the American taxpayer.
In 2024, EXIM approved a $500 million loan to facilitate the sale of goods and services from over a dozen U.S. companies for a natural gas project in Guyana. The project will double Guyana’s installed electricity capacity, drive emissions reductions and generate 1,500 American jobs. In the same year, EXIM approved $50 million to ESS Inc. under its Make More in America Initiative (MMIA), which finances U.S. manufacturers aiming to export. The project will support the company’s long-duration battery storage production in Oregon to meet increasing demand.
With a strong project pipeline moving forward, EXIM is paving the way for further advancements in affordable, reliable and clean energy. Romania was in formal negotiations with China to finance the Cernavoda nuclear power plant Units 3 and 4 before EXIM’s $3 billion letter of interest (LOI). In addition, EXIM signed LOIs for NuScale’s small modular reactor (SMR) deployment in Romania, Poland’s GE-Hitachi SMRs and Westinghouse AP1000 nuclear plants and Bulgaria’s Westinghouse AP1000s.
Today, our competitors’ export credit agencies (ECAs) are aggressive in advancing their national interests, particularly as China works to corner global markets and control vital supply chains. Foreign ECAs, like those of Australia and Canada, are adjusting policies to proactively support domestic industries. China operates under a different set of rules, offering financing that is not required to adhere to the same standards as Western countries. Meanwhile, EXIM only provides financing when necessary for a U.S. export to proceed. This underscores the need for EXIM to modernize trade finance to help U.S. industry compete more effectively around the world.
February 11- EXIM Senior Staff met with Bulgaria’s Minister of Energy
EXIM’s current limitations prevent the U.S. from fully competing in energy and manufacturing, putting American exporters at risk of falling behind in crucial sectors. There are four key opportunities to strengthen EXIM’s capabilities and, therefore, bolster U.S. clean energy leadership, create domestic jobs and enhance energy security for partners.
1. Create a National Interest Account:
The China & Transformational Exports Program (CTEP), created in 2019, was a strong first step in countering Chinese influence over advanced technologies. Building on this, EXIM can establish a National Interest Account (NIA), prioritizing strategic projects related to U.S. national interests. The NIA can incorporate CTEP’s existing technology areas while expanding beyond a narrow focus on renewables to encompass an all-of-the-above energy dominance approach. The MMIA can be codified and enhanced by including it in the NIA, which would strengthen U.S. manufacturing and improve America’s trade position.
This NIA would uphold EXIM’s role in an America First Trade Policy by leveling the playing field for U.S. companies against countries using similar tools to work against American interests.
2. Default Rate Cap Exclusion:
EXIM’s current 2% default rate cap is a unique requirement placed on the Bank that other countries do not face and discourages its staff from meeting Congressional mandates. The cap could be raised to 4% to align the Bank with the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) norms while exempting NIA-eligible projects entirely to provide flexibility for strategic sectors like clean energy. This requirement is an unnecessary obstacle that was created over a decade ago and is linked to an outdated lending limit.
3. Reinforce the U.S. Jobs Mandate:
EXIM’s current domestic content policy is the least flexible among ECAs globally, creating a significant obstacle for American innovators’ and manufacturers’ ability to leverage the Bank as a resource for world-class competition. Congress has the opportunity to update this outdated internal Bank policy with a modernized metric fit for today’s shifting supply chains. One option is to implement a simplified, scalable metric based on the number of jobs supported per dollar of financing, similar to how the MMIA program operates today. This would help center America at the heart of secure supply chains, unleash domestic production capacity and fulfill the Bank’s jobs mandate.
4. Modernize the Mission:
EXIM needs to update its mission to support American jobs and advance U.S. national interests. This revitalized mission would direct the Bank to proactively develop a project pipeline aligned with U.S. national security objectives and partner agencies like the Development Finance Corporation, fostering a clear understanding that global competitiveness is a core priority.
The U.S. should not try to match China’s state-backed subsidies dollar-for-yuan but instead go beyond and adopt a more agile, strategic approach. By using targeted financing tools to de-risk projects, attract private capital and create favorable market conditions, America can empower innovators and manufacturers to compete and lead globally. Strategic reforms will enable EXIM to support U.S. trade, energy and security goals, level the playing field for American businesses and solidify global leadership in key sectors, driving global emissions reductions while strengthening our economy.
