Ex-Im Bank chief pitches exporting at LIA
Fred P. Hochberg, who leads the U.S. Export-Import Bank in Washington, D.C., addresses the Long Island Association in Melville on Monday, offering help. (June 4, 2012) Credit: Newsday/Audrey C. Tiernan
Fred P. Hochberg, chairman and president of the U.S. Export-Import Bank, arrived at a Long Island Association meeting early this past Monday morning with a huge smile -- and good reason for it.
Only last week President Barack Obama signed a bill keeping the Ex-Im Bank in business for another three years, thus allowing it to continue providing hundreds of millions of dollars in trade assistance to companies in the United States.
Hochberg had come to the LIA headquarters in Melville to tell small businesses about what in Washington parlance is called the "reauthorization" of the bank, and how the bank can help them get into exporting.
The agency's charter was about to expire. After a typical battle between House Democrats and Republicans over government spending, party leaders reached a deal allowing the reauthorization.
"Who in this room is currently exporting?" Hochberg asked the approximately 100 in attendance. Only a few hands went up. The reason was immediately obvious:
Exporting is incredibly complex.
"We've had to engage some very sophisticated accounting firms to assist us" in exporting, said Steve Bennett, a vice president and managing director at Clever Devices, a 24-year-old, Plainview-based transit technology company. About 20 percent of the company's approximately $100 million in annual sales is now derived from exports. In the beginning it was zero, said chief operating officer Andrew Stanton.
Susan Axelrod, founder and chairman of Freeport-based Love and Quiches Desserts, said, "Every country has their own restrictions. It takes six weeks of back-and-forth paperwork" before exporting can begin. "It's very complicated, but it gets easier."
Rep. Steve Israel (D-Dix Hills), a host of the session along with the LIA, said the Ex-Im Bank is "nonpartisan . . . Its mission is to make money for small businesses."
To those in the room who had not raised their hands, Hochberg said, "What you're doing is [dealing with] only those people around you. You're ignoring" the rest of the world.
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