News

MANAMA, BAHRAIN - President and Chairman of the Export-Import Bank of the United States (EXIM) Kimberly A. Reed met today with His Excellency Dr. Fuad Hussain, Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister of the Republic of Iraq, to discuss the United States' commitment to ensuring a prosperous and stable Iraq, the role of EXIM, and new opportunities for economic growth and diversification.

Meeting on the margins of the 16th International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) Manama Dialogue, Chairman Reed and Foreign Minister Dr. Fuad discussed U.S. investment and potential export financing, options to meet Iraq's growing energy needs, and private sector growth in Iraq.  They also discussed the United States' support for growing relations between Iraq and its Arab Gulf neighbors.

EXIM Chairman Kimberly Reed and Iraqi Foreign Minister Dr. Fuad Hussain

Chairman Reed highlighted EXIM's historic 2019 reauthorization, which includes a Congressional mandate for a Program on China and Transformational Exports. The Program directs EXIM to provide financial products to directly neutralize export subsidies offered by the People's Republic of China, helping to ensure a level playing field for U.S. businesses and workers as they compete globally. It also directs EXIM to advance the comparative leadership of the United States with respect to China, or support United States innovation, employment, and technological standards, through direct exports in ten transformational export categories, including: AI, biotechnology, biomedical sciences, wireless communications (5G), quantum computing, renewable energy, semiconductors, emerging financial technologies, water treatment and sanitation, and high-performance computing.

Chairman Reed also congratulated Foreign Minister Dr. Fuad on his new position.  The Chairman and the Foreign Minister previously met on October 16, 2019-when His Excellency was the Iraqi Finance Minister-at EXIM's headquarters in Washington, D.C., to sign a $5 billion Memorandum of Understanding between EXIM and the Iraqi Ministry of Finance. The MOU aims at rebuilding Iraq and enhancing trade and economic cooperation between the two countries.

On August 19, 2020, Chairman Reed met with Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa Al-Kadhimi and the new Minister of Finance, Dr. Ali Allawi. And, on September 8, 2020, the EXIM Board of Directors unanimously approved a transaction that could facilitate the authorization of $450 million of insurance coverage on letters of credit issued by the Trade Bank of Iraq for the purchase of U.S. goods and services, such as agricultural commodities, including wheat and rice, as well as services, such as engineering, from America's exporters. The transaction is estimated to support 1,700 jobs across the United States.

Chairman Reed traveled to Bahrain to represent the United States as the U.S. delegate at the IISS Manama Dialogue, a unique international security and regional diplomatic summit, where delegations from more than 20 countries conduct face-to-face diplomacy through bilateral and multilateral meetings.

ABOUT EXIM:

EXIM is an independent federal agency that promotes and supports American jobs by providing competitive and necessary export credit to support sales of U.S. goods and services to international buyers. A robust EXIM can level the global playing field for U.S. exporters when they compete against foreign companies that receive support from their governments. EXIM also contributes to U.S. economic growth by helping to create and sustain hundreds of thousands of jobs in exporting businesses and their supply chains across the United States. In recent years, approximately 90 percent of the total number of the agency's authorizations has directly supported small businesses. Since 1992, EXIM has generated more than $9 billion for the U.S. Treasury for repayment of U.S. debt.

For more information about EXIM, please visit www.exim.gov.

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