Kimberly Reed was the first woman to serve as Chair, CEO and President of the Export-Import Bank of the United States. She served from 2019 to 2021. 

Federal Newswire

What is the mission of the Export-Import Bank?

Kimberly Reed

The Export-Import Bank was created in 1934. Its mission is supporting US jobs through US exports. 

I'd never really focused on the Export-Import Bank because I always heard it referred to as the bank of crony capitalism, or the bank of corporate welfare, or the bank of Boeing. So when Presidential personnel called me and said we want to talk to you about a job, they said we think all your background experience perfectly knits together to go to the Export-Import Bank. 

I was surprised. I [said] “President Trump opposed that during the campaign… so what happened?” They said he met with CEOs of companies who told him we're getting our clocks cleaned by China’s Belt and Road Initiative all around the world.

The United States has a great domestic marketplace where we're selling goods and services. But 95% of the consumers in the world are outside of the United States. Some companies excel at global exporting, trading, and business, and some are new to it. Ex-Im provides financing to the foreign buyer. 

Federal Newswire

How does the Export-Import Bank work?

Kimberly Reed

If a foreign buyer has a hard time getting a loan from a normal bank to buy Made in the USA goods or services, they can apply to the US Export and Import Bank. 

There also may be a private sector bank [that] will give them a loan to buy a Made in the USA good or service, but it's a little [bit of a] risky deal for that bank. They're going to say, “we need the US government to guarantee the loan.” We do lending and then guarantees. 

Then for mainly small businesses, we have Export Credit Insurance, where you're making goods and services in the US and you send them off to foreign countries. But if something happens, say the ship goes down or the foreign buyer doesn't pay or make good on their deal, the US buyer can take out an Export Credit Insurance policy with Ex-Im to make them whole if something bad happens. That's generally [what] we do. 

Federal Newswire

Are Republican views on the Ex-Im Bank changing?

Kimberly Reed

There are a few Republicans and true believers in the free market system who think that it's not the role of government to intervene in the private marketplace; they think it distorts markets. 

[A] few Republican Senators had blocked the nominees to the Export-Import Bank board for about four years, effectively shutting down the bank, because you need a bank board to vote on deals.

[When] I became the nominee, it took two and a half years to get confirmed, even though I was confirmed 79 to 17. I appreciated having conversations with some Republicans, like Senator Tom Cotton, who is a China hawk. He understands what the People's Republic of China is doing through its Belt and Road Initiative, and so I helped him understand how the US could help be a solution for that. 

Federal Newswire

Has the bank made progress for American interests?

Kimberly Reed

[We] had to deal with Covid and shutting down the office [and]... the world [continued on] while we were gone. For four years Germany, France, Italy, Canada, their Ex-Ims all came in and took a lot of business, because foreign buyers don't have to buy Made in USA goods [for] their services. You need a loan to buy something. You're going to go where the loan is. 

Federal Newswire

Can you explain the China program you were running?

Kimberly Reed

Reauthorization… happened on December 20, 2019.  I went out to Andrews Air Force base, because the President signed into law the creation of the US Space Force. Then he signed into law the longest reauthorization in the history of Ex-Im which was for seven years, but as part of getting that done a new program was put into the legislation. 

I was mandated to establish a program on China and transformational exports. That legislation said they want Ex-Im to do at least $37 billion in lending to foreign buyers. They [wanted to] neutralize China, pick America, and advance America's comparative leadership in the world.

The legislation gave the US Export-Import bank the flexibility to match the rates, terms, and conditions that the People's Republic of China would be offering for [a] deal. We could match the financing, and everyone around the world says the US makes the best, highest quality goods and services. We have an outstanding reputation for that. That new capability that we had was a tool that is not only important to economic security but national security. 

The legislation also says we want you to focus on 10 key areas. These are ones that every national security expert talks about all the time: AI, quantum computing, but also things like biotechnology. 

This program created the very first national security advisor who advised me. [I] recruited a great guy, David Truglio, who's now President of the Reagan library in California. I recruited him over from the Department of Defense to set up this program for me. It's now being led by great career civil servant Adam Frost. 

I hope for big things for this program. I'm not there now. I left on January 20th, 2021 but I want to see them doing a lot more.

Federal Newswire

How should the branches of our government work together to address China?

Kimberly Reed

I'm very worried. When I was at Ex-Im, the Republicans were in the minority in the House of Representatives, and they had the foresight to create something called the China Task Force. The China Task Force has become a Select Committee, and it's chaired by a great Congressman, Mike Gallagher. [He] was in Iowa talking about theft of US seeds by the Chinese. They take [them] back to China and then copy and replicate, which hurts our farmers and businesses, because we spend all the money on the research in R&D, but that's only one topic.

Congressman Gallagher just last week said, and I quote, “it seems President Xi of China is preparing for war,” and the ranking Democrat Krishnanoorthi said that “he believes that America must be prepared for something called a preemptive attack.” This is serious. 

They used the example of what happened in Korea. If China wants Taiwan, they come and do a preemptive attack on us to kind of tell us to brush back and not get involved. How are we going to handle that and what are we going to do about it? I really hope everyone in Congress and in our whole country thinks about that. 

We know that China thinks long term, and I love the Chinese people. I spent time in China at the International Food Information Council. I did food safety courses for every province in China with their FDA there talking about safe food supply globally. 

We’ve got to do all we can and use all [the] tools we can use on the economic and national security front to prepare for something. It's alarming when you hear that you think someone's preparing for war, because this war could be devastating unlike anything the world has ever experienced. So let's not get there.

Federal Newswire

Where can readers go to follow your work?

Kimberly Reed

I'm on LinkedIn so you can follow me there.