WASHINGTON:Export-Import bank shuttered its doors after Congress didn’t renew its charter, Jax Chamber president Daniel Davis is urging legislators to reauthorize the bank.“In Florida, where more than 58,000 small- and medium-sized businesses are exporters, access to Ex-Im has proven vital for many companies,” Davis wrote in a recent letter.
“Thousands of smaller companies that supply goods and services to large exporters also benefit from Ex-Im’s activities.”Several Jacksonville businesses who export used the Ex-Im bank to guarantee they’d get paid for their products.”It gives us a competitive edge and peace of mind,” Mark Rosset whose company, Lamar Aero, exports airplane parts globally said about the bank, in an interview with the Business Journal a year ago.
“It allows us to take that risk on new companies that we might not extend those terms to. We wouldn’t take the risk of extending open terms to some of the folks we have insured right now.”It’s not the first time Jax Chamber has supported the bank in October, Davis wrote a letter defending the bank published in the Orlando Sentinel. And in May, said spokesman Matt Galnor, it was one of the big issues discussed when the Chamber went to Washington D.C.
Now, Davis and Jax Chamber are championing to reinstate the bank.“It’s a critical tool businesses can use,” Davis told the Business Journal. “The Ex-Im bank had been around for decades. I believe Congress should reestablish the bank.”Davis said he wrote the letter because it’s one of the Chamber’s priorities to drum up attention for the bank. In his letter, he called on residents to contact their legislature.
