Federal Government widens scope for export guarantees in response to coronavirus pandemic

The Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy has agreed with the Federal Ministry of Finance to make it possible for the Federal Government to issue export guarantees for transactions with short-term payment obligations (of up to 24 months) within the EU and with certain OECD countries. This is to make up for potential bottlenecks in the private market for export-credit insurance.

On 27 March 2020, the European Commission decided to amend the Short-term export-credit insurance Communication to make this possible. More specifically, the Commission decided to temporarily strike all countries from the list of “marketable risk” countries, i.e. the list of countries for which government-sponsored export guarantees can normally not be provided. In taking this measure, the Commission has given a swift and flexible response to requests by several Member States, including Germany. The move will allow Member States to take quick and decisive action if the private market for export-credit insurance begins to dry up.

Ain addition to the other EU countries, the amendment also benefits Australia, Canada, Iceland, Japan, New Zealand, Norway, Switzerland, the UK and the US. The new rules will apply at least until 31 December 2020.

For more details about the wider scope for guarantees for short-term transactions, visit the website of Federal Government’s mandatary (www.agaportal.de/exportkreditgarantien/praxis/marktfaehige-risiken) (in German).

The Federal Ministry of Finance has already taken provisions in the supplementary budget to create scope for the guarantee framework to ensure that it can cope with the rise in demand that can be expected with this considerable widening of the guarantee framework.