Sec. 2. Findings; purpose

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Congress makes the following findings: Export growth helps United States businesses grow and create American jobs. In 2011, United States exports supported 9,700,000 jobs and 97.8 percent of United States exports came from small- and medium-sized businesses in 2010. The more than 20 Federal agencies that are involved in export promotion and financing are not sufficiently coordinated to adequately expand United States commercial exports to Africa. The President has taken steps to improve how the United States Government supports American businesses by mandating an executive review across agencies and a new Doing Business in Africa initiative, but a substantially greater high-level focus on Africa is needed.

Many other countries have trade promotion programs that aggressively compete against United States exports in Africa and around the world. For example, in 2010, medium- and long-term official export credit general volumes from the Group of 7 countries (Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States) totaled $65,400,000,000. Germany provided the largest level of support at $22,500,000,000, followed by France at $17,400,000,000 and the United States at $13,000,000,000.

Official export credit support by emerging market economies such as Brazil, China, and India are significant as well. Between 2008 and 2010, China alone provided more than $110,000,000,000 in loans to the developing world, and, in 2009, China surpassed the United States as the leading trade partner of African countries. In the last 10 years, African trade with China has increased from $11,000,000,000 to $166,000,000,000. The Export-Import Bank of the United States substantially increased lending to United States businesses focused on Africa from $400,000,000 in 2009 to $1,400,000,000 in 2011, but the Export-Import Bank of China dwarfed this effort with an estimated $12,000,000,000 worth of financing.

Overall, China is outpacing the United States in selling goods to Africa at a rate of 3 to 1. Other countries such as India, Turkey, Russia, and Brazil are also aggressively seeking markets in Africa using their national export banks to provide concessional assistance. The Chinese practice of concessional financing runs contrary to the principles of the Organization of Economic Co-operation and Development related to open market rates, undermines naturally competitive rates, and can allow governments in Africa to overlook the troubling record on labor practices, human rights, and environmental impact.

As stated in a recent report entitled Embracing Africa’s Economic Potential by Senator Chris Coons, Economic growth in Africa has risen dramatically, but the continent’s vast economic potential has not yet been fully realized by the U.S. Government or the American private sector. . The African continent is undergoing a period of rapid growth and middle class development, as seen from major indicators such as Internet use, clean water access, and real income growth. In the last decade alone, the percentage of the population with access to the Internet has doubled.

Seventy-eight percent of Africa’s rural population now has access to clean water. Over the past 10 years, real income per person in Africa has grown by more than 30 percent. Economists have designated Africa as the next frontier market , with profitability of many African firms and growth rates of African countries exceeding global averages in recent years. Countries in Africa have a collective spending power of almost $9,000,000,000 and a gross domestic product of $1,600,000,000,000, which are projected to double in the next 10 years.

In the past 10 years, Africa has been home to 6 of the 10 fastest growing economies in the world. Sub-Saharan Africa is projected to have the fastest growing economies in the world over the next 10 years, with 7 of the 10 fastest growing economies located in sub-Saharan Africa. When countries such as China assist with large-scale government projects, they also gain an upper hand in relations with African leaders and access to valuable commodities such as oil and copper, typically without regard to environmental, human rights, labor, or governance standards.

Unless the United States can offer competitive financing for its firms in Africa, it will be deprived of opportunities to participate in African efforts to close the continent’s significant infrastructure gap that amounts to an estimated $100,000,000,000. The purpose of this Act is to create jobs in the United States by expanding programs that will result in increasing United States exports to Africa by 200 percent in real dollar value within 10 years.