The Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC) and the Export-Import Bank could help U.S. nuclear energy companies compete in a global civil market that has been characterized partly by Russian and Chinese subsidies given to countries that buy their reactor technology, a top State Department official said during a speech yesterday.
“We do not have the same ability, the same integration of state and government that allows exporting countries such as China and Russia to more aggressively offer price discounts and financing deals that are attractive to the [importing] countries that are just starting in the nuclear power industry,” Assistant Secretary of State for International Security and Nonproliferation Tom Countryman said during the American Nuclear Society Winter Meeting and Nuclear Technology Expo in Washington. “There is hope in the sense that we are moving to renewal of the Ex-Im Bank’s mandate, and there’s a need for aggressive use, also, of OPIC to oversee…investment cooperation, in order for U.S. firms to compete in a process that otherwise is skewed by economic subsidies for governments.”
Following a 64-29 Senate vote, the House on Thursday voted 363-64 to pass a transportation bill that would revive the Ex-Im Bank, whose charter expired on June 30. The two chambers must submit a conference version of the bill to President Barack Obama before it becomes law. The House is on its Veterans Day recess until Nov. 16. The Ex-Im Bank, which is the official export credit agency of the U.S., financing and insuring foreign purchases of U.S. goods for customers who cannot or will not accept credit risk, recently has drawn the ire of conservative republicans who have called it “corporate welfare.”
OPIC is a federal government agency that invests U.S.-derived private capital in foreign markets that face development challenges, and provides investors with financing, guarantees, political risk insurance, and support for private equity investment funds.
Countryman also pointed to the recently renewed 30-year-old U.S.-China civil nuclear agreement, which he said could support American jobs. “Our civil nuclear agreement with China will allow for future joint U.S.-China supply partnerships, if China were to become a larger nuclear exporter in the future, and those export opportunities for the U.S. could support tens of thousands of high-paying American jobs,” he said. According to an announcement yesterday by the Nuclear Energy Institute, the agreement has entered into force following diplomatic exchanges between the two countries, after passing a congressional review period on Aug. 1.
