Which One of These Things Is Not Like the Other? Hint: OPIC

Dear Congress:

Just a tiny point of clarification on something that regularly drives me nuts: OPIC is a development agency—not a trade promotion agency.

I know, I know, you want to lump it in with the Export-Import Bank, but if you’re going to lump, USAID and MCC make a whole lot more sense.

The most recent example of this confusion (but far from the only) is yesterday’s House Foreign Affairs Terrorism, Nonproliferation, and Trade Subcommittee’s hearing on Trade Promotion Agencies and US Foreign Policy, which included, Ex-Im, TDA, and OPIC. Yes, all three agencies do things abroad that have to do with US companies, but that’s pretty much where the similarities end. As Subcommittee Chair Poe stated, even if it wasn’t fully born out in the hearing, Ex-Im is the official US export credit agency (meaning it helps to finance exports of US companies’ goods) and OPIC is the official US development finance institution (meaning it promotes development by financing or insuring US investment). OPIC’s primary mission is development.

And hey, if you want my suggestion on a hearing that includes OPIC, what about a hearing on how to modernize the agency into a full-service development finance institution like my colleagues Ben Leo and Todd Moss propose here in their paper on creating the US Development Finance Corporation? OPIC is doing great things, but it’s hamstrung by an authorization dating back primarily to 1971. This isn’t about big government or corporate welfare, it’s about smart reforms to consolidate existing tools, making those tools efficient, and delivering better development results. If the USG truly sees development as a foreign policy tool, then it needs to up its development finance game.

Sincerely,
Beth