GOP Radical Ex-Im Agenda Killing More American Jobs
From Reuters:
GE to move engine plant to Canada as U.S. trade bank languishes
General Electric Co said on Monday it will move production of large, gas-powered engines to Canada from Waukesha, Wisconsin, along with 350 jobs, because the company cannot access financing from the U.S. Export-Import bank.
In its latest salvo aimed at persuading Congress to renew the trade bank's expired charter, GE said it will invest $265-million (U.S.) in a new state-of-the-art manufacturing plant at a Canadian location yet to be determined.
GE agrees to export financing from UK, may create 1,000 jobs
General Electric Co has struck a deal for up to $12 billion in financing from Britain's export credit agency, possibly creating as many as 1,000 jobs in the country.
The deal, announced on Thursday, could be seen as the latest sign of U.S. exporters' unhappiness at the winding down of the U.S. Export-Import Bank, which lent money to foreign customers of U.S. exporters. Its charter lapsed on June 30 after conservatives in the U.S. Congress cast it as a promoter of "crony capitalism."
GE is already shifting jobs overseas because of the lack of U.S. export financing and plane-maker Boeing Co, the largest U.S. exporter, is threatening to do the same.
Boeing chairman Jim McNerney said on Thursday it was "inevitable" that his company would move work offshore if Ex-Im is not allowed to lend…
Only last week, GE cited the absence of Ex-Im financing when it announced plans to shift up to 500 U.S. power-turbine manufacturing jobs to Europe and China. It also stopped considering U.S. locations for a new development center for turboprop engines, selecting Europe instead.
American businesses and workers are fed up with Republican ideologues who are playing political games with their economic security. It's long past time House Republicans ended their extreme shutdown of the Ex-Im Bank and joined Democrats to reauthorize this vital tool of American competitiveness.