Organisation for Economic Cooperation & Development
Export Credits at the OECD
OECD Secretariat
12 September 2007, Prague
Objectives of the OECD work on export credits
Responding to Members’ policy priorities
Setting efficient disciplines
Monitoring, Reviewing and Building Experience
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Today’s Focus : What’s New in 2007
1.
New Aircraft Sector Understanding
2. New OECD Recommendation on Anti-Bribery
Measures
3. Revised OECD Recommendation on Environment
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What’s New in 2007
1.
New Aircraft Sector Understanding
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2007 Aircraft Sector Understanding
Background and Objectives
• Modernise the 1986 disciplines
• Involve all major players
• Create predictability in a highly competitive market
• Follow up to WTO disputes and find solutions to
establish a workable common ground for post-dispute
settlement
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2007 Aircraft Sector Understanding: Status
• Status
– A Gentlemen’s agreement – soft law
– An Annex to the Arrangement on Officially Supported
Export Credits
– Successor agreement to the 1986 Understanding
• Who may apply its provisions
– All Participants to the Understanding
– Voluntary implementation possible by any non-
Participant – transparency provisions can also be
used to solve competitive issues
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2007 Aircraft Sector Understanding:
What’s new
• A complete set of disciplines with necessary definitions
• A robust risk assessment of buyers/borrowers
• A risk-pricing system bifurcated by aircraft category
(large/regional)
• Efficient consultation and dispute-resolution procedures
• Provisions to include more players when appropriate
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What’s New in 2007
2. New OECD Recommendation on Anti-Bribery
Measures
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Anti-Bribery Recommendation: Background
• 1997 OECD Convention on bribery in international business
transactions
• Since 2000, Members of the OECD Export Credits Group have
implemented an Action Statement on anti-bribery measures
• This Statement was enhanced and transformed into an OECD
Recommendation at the end of 2006
• Recommendation reflects Members’ experience in implementing
the 2000 Action Statement, input from CSOs and feedback from
the reviews of OCED Governments’ anti-bribery measures more
generally under the OECD Anti-Bribery Convention.
• Governments and their ECAs
are now implementing the new
undertakings in their export credit systems
• Revised survey in place to monitor application of the
Recommendation; first results expected before end 2007
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Anti-Bribery Recommendation: Highlights
• “No bribery” undertaking is now a prerequisite for
obtaining official export credit support
• Verification of whether the exporter/applicant is listed
on the publicly available debarment lists of the major
international financial institutions (e.g. World Bank
Group)
• Exporters/applicants required to:
– Provide, upon demand, details about the amounts and purpose
of commissions/fees paid
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Anti-Bribery Recommendation: Highlights (cont.)
ECAs must, under specific circumstances:
– Scrutinise more closely applications
– Verify that internal corrective and preventative measures have
been taken for exporters that have been convicted of bribery in
the past before new cover could be provided again
– Develop and implement disclosure procedures to disclose to law
enforcement authorities instances of evidence of bribery
– Promptly inform law enforcement authorities if there was evidence
that bribery was involved in the award of the export contract
– Not provide support for a transaction if there is evidence of
bribery or if the enhanced due diligence process concludes that
bribery was involved in the award of the export contract
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What’s New in 2007
3. A Revised OECD Recommendation on
Environment
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Environment Recommendation: Background
•
There had been various agreements on environmental
issues in the ECG since 1998
 These culminated in 2003 in the adoption by the OECD
Council of a Recommendation on export credits and the
environment
 Members reviewed the 2003 Recommendation in 2006,
in light of experience and with input from IFIs and CSOs
(including business, trade unions, banking associations
and NGOs), and agreed a revised text in April 2007
 OECD Council adopted the revised Recommendation in
June 2007
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Environment Recommendation: Enhancements
• SCOPE: exports to both new projects and existing operations
should be reviewed before providing official export credit support
• STANDARDS: the international standards against which projects
should be benchmarked have been extended to include all ten
World Bank Safeguard Policies or, where appropriate, all eight
International Finance Corporation Performance Standards.
• TRANSPARENCY: stronger disclosure provisions for the projects
with the highest potential environmental impacts, to provide for
(i) Members to publicly disclose project information and
(ii)environmental impact information to be made publicly
available, as early as possible in the review process and at least
30 days before a final commitment.
• OUTREACH: to increase awareness in non-OECD countries who
provide official export credit support of the benefits of reviewing
the environmental impacts of projects they intend to support.
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Environment Recommendation:
Sensitive Projects
Information available ex post on the OECD website
- Category A projects: generally big projects in the mining,
energy and transportation sectors
- Category B projects : generally manufacturing projects
- For the projects reported for 2006:
– International Standards were applied to 92% of
CategoryA projects and 80% of Category B projects;
– 97% of Category A projects benchmarked against
international standards applied those of the World Bank
Group;
– Environmental Impact Assessments were required for all
but three Category A projects;
– Ex ante disclosure of environmental impact information
was achieved for 100% of Category A projects.
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Challenges
• Increased competition from OECD Non-Member
Economies who provider official medium- and longterm export credits
– Need to ensure a level playing field between all major players
• OECD export credit rule-making:
– Need to maintain efficiency of decision-making process
– Rules that fit the needs of a more varied group of countries
• Current state of play
– Participation of several Non-Member Economies as ad hoc
observers since 2005/2006 in OECD export credit meetings
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Thank you very much.
Merci beaucoup.
[email protected]
www.oecd.org/tad/xcred
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