For those who haven’t worked in manufacturing, it may seem as though only large corporations sell their products across international borders. Those working at and leading small and medium-sized manufacturing businesses, however, know the real story.
In the U.S., small and medium-sized businesses with fewer than 500 workers account for 97.6 percent of all exporters and 96.4 percent of all manufacturing exporters.
At MWI Corporation, a pump manufacturing company located in Deerfield Beach, Fla., I’ve witnessed the story behind the statistics firsthand. We made our first international sale in 1971, selling water pumps to customers in Jamaica. Since then, accessing international customers and markets has only become more critical to our business. Today, we’re proud to have pump systems operating in over 50 countries.
To sell our systems across the globe, MWI relies on the Export-Import Bank. Between 1983 and 2002, MWI obtained Ex-Im financing commitments to support export sales to Nigeria, Ghana, Zimbabwe, and Venezuela. These sales totaled nearly $221 million, money that went into hiring workers and paying employees back at home in the U.S.
Without Ex-Im, our sales to Zimbabwe and other developing countries would not have happened. That’s why our business relies on Ex-Im, and why I oppose former Rep. Scott Garrett’s nomination to lead this critical agency.
Since President Trump nominated Garrett, I’ve felt anxious and concerned. President Trump has been a strong supporter of American manufacturing since he first began campaigning for the presidency.
Yet Scott Garrett does not share these priorities. While in Congress, Garrett made it his goal to shut down Ex-Im, repeatedly voting against reauthorizing the bank and arguing its mission is “doling out taxpayer funded welfare for mega corporations.”
Garrett’s comments demonstrate a fundamental misunderstanding of the connection between Ex-Im financing and supporting jobs for small business employees and suppliers. In 1997, 750 small business suppliers in 24 states benefited directly from MWI’s export sales that were supported by Ex-Im Bank financing as well as over 300 jobs in our factory. In fiscal year 2016, more than 90 percent of Ex-Im’s transactions—more than 2,600 transactions—directly supported American small businesses. Without Ex-Im, it is our business and businesses like ours that would suffer the most.
The overused criticism of Ex-Im as favoring large manufacturers like Boeing is misleading and hardly tells the whole story. When the Ex-Im Bank provides financing to Boeing to support the export sales of their aircraft, Boeing partners with more than 13,400 small and mid-size suppliers and vendor across the country, which supports 1.3 million American jobs.
I watched last week’s confirmation hearing hoping that, after months of hearing from those who rely on the bank, of preparing for his hearing, and of researching the bank’s track record, Garrett had learned from his mistakes and could now muster a clear and unequivocal statement of support for the mission of the Export-Import Bank.
In every respect, Garrett disappointed. Asked time and time again whether he was wrong to try to shut down the Bank, Garrett evaded the question every time. He point-blank refused to take back his former statements.
I watched the hearing hoping I was wrong about Scott Garrett and the danger he posed to those Americans who rely on the Ex-Im Bank. I even wrote to Sens. Mike Crapo, R-Idaho, and Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, the chairman and ranking member of the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs, urging them to scrutinize Garrett. They did.
I felt a pit in my stomach and the knowledge that, if anything, the threat Garrett posed was even greater than I had initially thought.
Garrett does not believe in Ex-Im. We, the small business leaders and workers that rely on the bank, have no reason to believe in him. In my view, Ex-Im Bank is actually the “bank of small business” and it deserves to survive and be led by someone who believes in its mission and who is prepared to defend it against those naysayers who foolishly try to destroy it.
Scott Garrett is not that person.
William E. Bucknam, Esq. is the Vice President and General Counsel for MWI Corporation in Deerfield Beach, Florida.
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