NEW YORK: General Electric’s chief executive has launched a broadside at Congress over US trade policy, threatening to relocate jobs out of the US if the country’s export credit agency is shut down by Republicans and lambasting Democrats for blocking progress towards a Pacific Rim trade deal.
Jeff Immelt also lambasted Democrats for blocking progress towards a Pacific Rim trade deal.
The GE chief warned that if Congress failed to renew the charter for the Export-Import Bank, after delaying legislation to grant President Barack Obama “fast-track” authority for trade negotiations, the US would be “in full retreat on the global economic stage”.
He urged members of Congress to support giving Mr Obama trade promotion authority, saying it was essential for concluding deals with Asia and Europe that would benefit small businesses and workers
Mr Immelt suggested, in a Washington speech on Wednesday, that GE would refuse to invest in areas where politicians declined to back trade deals and export credit support.
If you are against trade and exporters, you are against our employees and suppliers: we will not invest in your state,” he said.
Mr Immelt’s comments were his most outspoken intervention yet in the fight over the federal government’s ExIm Bank, which needs its charter reauthorised by Congress to continue operating after June 30.
