General Electric admitted it will ship American jobs overseas, even if the Export-Import Bank gets reauthorized.
General Electric officials have previously said that more jobs are likely to move overseas, unless the Export-Import Bank gets reauthorized. In accordance, GE Chief Executive Jeff Immelt has campaigned to revive Ex-Im, according to Reuters.
Ex-Im provides taxpayer-backed loans and loan guarantees to foreign countries and companies for the purchase of U.S. exports. The bank’s charter expired June 30, and as of July 1, it is not authorized to engage in new business activity.
GE has blamed the expiration of Ex-Im as a reason for moving jobs.
With a plan to open up a new manufacturing plant in Canada, the company pointed to export financing that it would receive in Canada as a reason for the recent closure of a GE plant in Waukesha, Wisconsin.
Pressed for details, GE’s Vice Chairman of Global Operations John G. Rice said the Waukesha jobs will be moved to Canada, even if the bank is reauthorized.
“If financing for the Export-Import Bank is quickly restored, will the Waukesha plant and its workers be spared? No, Mr. Rice said, the decision is irreversible,” Steve Lohr of The New York Times reports. “An extension of Export-Import Bank funding, he said, would not remove the business risk that the bank might be killed a few years later.”
The Daily Signal’s Melissa Quinn reported early in October that a Wisconsin state lawmaker criticized GE, one of the biggest beneficiaries of Ex-Im, for using the closure of the Ex-Im bank as a “scapegoat” for moving the jobs.
>>> The Controversy on GE and Export-Import Bank Explained
The bank’s supporters say Ex-Im aims to support private-sector American jobs; yet critics of Ex-Im say export financing does not create new jobs but, instead, redistributes jobs across the American economy.
“The fight to renew Ex-Im was never about keeping jobs in the U.S.; it was entirely about GE increasing their profits with American tax dollars,” Freedom Partners, a conservative group, spokesperson James Davis said in a statement.
The U.S. House of Representatives voted on Oct. 27 for the Ex-Im Bank to be reauthorized.
“Millions of Americans are struggling to make ends meet,” Davis said. “A single mom, working two jobs to put food on the table, shouldn’t be forced to subsidize corporate profits, and lawmakers shouldn’t cave to empty threats that turn employees into political bargaining chips.”
