David Petraeus: 'Letting U.S. Export-Import Bank Charter Expire Will Be Sort Of Economic Unilateral Disarmament'

The charter of the U.S. Export-Import Bank, which was founded during the Great Depression to help the exports of U.S.-made goods, is scheduled for renewal on June 14, but most Congressmen think that instead of being renewed, the charter will expire, even if temporarily.

Former Director of the Central Intelligence Agency and Retired General, David Petraeus, will be on this week’s edition of the Wall Street Week, where he will discuss why the charter shouldn’t expire and also explain why he supports the Trans-Pacific Partnership. Here is an excerpt from that interview.

Economic Unilateral Disarmament

“The Export-Import Bank essentially loans money generally to small businesses that are trying to compete overseas,” Petraeus said. “Every other country in the world has one of these and there’s a fight to end its funding as seen by some as big government or something like that. Now this particular element of big government is actually making money in recent years.”

He continued, “And sometimes it will give insurance to enable an arrangement or what have you. So, again I don’t want to overstate the magnitude of this, but to let it lapse again would be a sign that the U.S. just isn’t serious about this stuff. This would be sort of economic unilateral disarmament really in effect.”

Supportive Of Trans-Pacific Partnership

Petraeus was asked if he is in support of the Trans-Pacific Partnership. He replied, “Very, very supportive of it and for two reasons by the way. There is the economic argument for it, but probably even more important than that is actually the national security, the diplomatic, I guess the geo-political argument for it.”

 “And it can be captured by what the Singaporean Foreign Minister (K. Shanmugam) told me when he was asking about this. He said, ‘you know what? If you can’t get trade promotion authority and therefore the Trans-Pacific Partnership, America is finished out here’. That’s a pretty important statement,” Petraeus concluded.