> EXPORT-IMPORT BANK
>
> ANNUAL CONFERENCE
>
> LUNCHEON
>
> Thursday, May 2, 2002
>
> Omni Shoreham Hotel
>
> Washington, D.C.
>
> \[TRANSCRIPT PREPARED FROM A TAPE RECORDING.\]
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> **Luncheon**
>
> Speaker: Senator Paul Sarbanes \[D-MD\] 3
>
> **Awards Ceremony-Ex-Im Bank Board Members**
>
> Vanessa Weaver, Board Member 22
>
> **Small Business Broker of the Year Award**
>
> Joe Grandmaison, Board Member 25
>
> **Small Business Exporter of the Year Award**
>
> Dan Renberg, Board Member 28
>
> **Small Business Bank of the Year Award**
>
> Vanessa Weaver, Board Member 34
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> MR. AGUIRRE: Good afternoon. I realize it\'s May, but it\'s like
> Christmas in May. We just got a gift.
>
> Senator Paul Sarbanes has just joined us and has agreed to deliver
> some remarks for you. He\'s here with his aid, Marty Gruenberg, and it
> is my pleasure to introduce to you Senator Paul Sarbanes, who is the
> Chairman of the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban
> Affairs. It is the committee that overseas Ex-Im Bank in the United
> States Senate, and obviously extremely important to us, and should be
> extremely important to you.
>
> I realize that you\'re still going through your meal, but I ask for
> your attention. Given the busy schedule that the Hill has today and,
> in fact, every day, we are very grateful for the Senator being able to
> join us. In fact, we\'re grateful for all of the congressional members
> that have taken time to join us at this annual conference and have
> been here, in and out, and will be here, in and out, for the rest of
> the conference.
>
> Senator Sarbanes was first elected to represent Maryland in the U.S.
> House of Representatives in 1970 and in the U.S. Senate in 1976. He
> was reelected to his fifth term in the year 2000.
>
> The Senator has worked very hard over the years to promote free and
> fair trade and is a major proponent of the Trade Promotion
> Coordinating Committee, a multi-government agency which cooperates and
> brings together all of the trade agencies and exporter programs so
> that an exporter or a small business can do one-stop shopping to learn
> about how to export their goods and services.
>
> Senator Sarbanes is a forceful power in the Senate and has been a
> major supporter of the Bank over the years. I, personally, want to
> thank him for his support and for chairing my hearing on my
> conference. His committee has overseen the reauthorization of the Bank
> in the Senate and will be working with the House on the Conference
> Committee to pass a final version of the bill, hopefully in the next
> few days.
>
> Let us welcome Senator Paul Sarbanes.
>
> \[Applause.\]
>
> SENATOR SARBANES: Eduardo, thank you for a very gracious introduction.
>
> My parents came to this country as immigrants from Greece, and they
> ran a restaurant. I grew up working in the restaurant. So I encourage
> you all to go on eating. I\'m used to working while people are eating.
>
> \[Laughter.\]
>
> SENATOR SARBANES: The Senate schedule is pretty intense nowadays, but
> I appreciate the fact that I had an opening and was able to slip away
> from the Hill and come down here and join you because I\'ve been to
> these conferences before. I think they\'re extremely important, and
> I\'m glad to participate in them. We don\'t have all that many days
> left before this Congress ends, and the work is sort of intensifying.
>
> There\'s a wonderful story they tell about Senator Aiken, just so you
> get some sense of what our lives are like up on the Hill, who, of
> course, served here for many years from Vermont. He took out his daily
> schedule, and he was peering at it. Every member of the Senate carries
> something like this around with them. Some of my colleagues have very
> fancy ones. They have a kind of a leather case in which they enclose
> their card and everything.
>
> But, in any event, Aiken was peering at his schedule in a committee
> meeting one morning. So some bright, younger staffer sitting there
> said, \"What are you doing, Senator Aiken, trying to figure out where
> you\'re supposed to go next?\"
>
> And Aiken looked up with a smile, and he says, \"No, no.\" He says,
> \"I\'m trying to figure out where I am now.\"
>
> \[Laughter.\]
>
> SENATOR SARBANES: And it works like that a good part of the time.
> Well, at least I know where I am now, and I very much wanted to be
> here because I feel very strongly about the role the Export Import
> Bank plays in the overall functioning of our economy and of the
> importance of promoting U.S. exports.
>
> I can remember the days not too long after I came to the Senate, when
> we had to beat back an effort to actually do away with the
> Export-Import Bank. That was when we had kind of these free-market
> idealogues, I mean, very rigid people, and they sort of said, \"Well,
> the market is not supposed to operate this way, and we\'re intervening
> into the market, and we ought to get rid of the Export-Import Bank.\"
> Fortunately, that view did not prevail, and we\'ve been able of course
> to sustain the Bank and enhance its functions over the years.
>
> First, let me just take a moment to say what I\'m sure others have
> said here, and that is the tremendous loss for the Export-Import Bank
> and, indeed, for our nation with the passing of John Robson. I had
> enormous respect and regard for John. In my view, the Ex-Im Bank and
> the administration were fortunate to get an individual of his
> experience and stature to lead the Bank, and our country I think will
> miss his outstanding leadership and his dedicated service. I\'m sure
> those of you who knew him would share that view with me.
>
> I told John Robson when he took over the Bank that we\'d try to
> accomplish two things by the end of his first year; one was to get a
> full board in place, in terms of the members of the Export-Import Bank
> Board, and, secondly, was to get the reauthorization bill.
>
> Well, we got a full board in place during the first year, and with
> Eduardo Aguirre as its Vice Chairman. Of course, now we, regrettably,
> have a spot to fill. And on the reauthorization, we didn\'t make the
> year, but we\'re getting close\--we did get the bill through the
> Senate. I was able to tell John, he was then ill at the end, that
> we\'d gotten the bill through the Senate, and that seemed to mean
> something to him, but you know we\'re working hard to get this
> reauthorization done.
>
> The Senate passed its bill back in the fall, and the House just
> yesterday took up and passed, by voice vote, its version of the bill.
> Actually, we passed the bill out of committee in the fall. We passed
> it a couple of months ago, finally, by unanimous consent. Sometimes if
> you just let it hang around\--
>
> \[Laughter.\]
>
> SENATOR SARBANES: \--you let it hang around for a while and hang
> around for a while, and then one evening, right at the end of
> everything, you manage to take it on through. That\'s always the best
> way to do it.
>
> The House just yesterday took up and passed its version of the bill,
> and I\'m hopeful we\'ll be able to go to conference shortly, resolve
> the differences between the two bills, which are not very great, and
> complete the reauthorization process. In the meantime, we keep passing
> these short-term reauthorizations, which are, of course, important
> because if the authorization lapses, the Ex-Im Bank can\'t do
> business, and so all of a sudden everything comes to a screeching
> halt, which is of course no way to run the government or anything
> else, for that matter.
>
> I feel very keenly that the need for the Ex-Im Bank is perhaps as
> strong as it\'s ever been, perhaps even stronger. When we last
> reauthorized the Ex-Im Bank four years ago, there was a sense that
> some progress was being made worldwide and controlling the growth of
> export credits being provided by national governments.
>
> The OECD arrangement on tied aid credits seemed to be having some
> effect, and there was hope that future progress could be made. Of
> course, it\'s always been a part of American policy to try to limit or
> restrain those credits; indeed, if possible, to do away with them.
>
> But what has been happening, I think, in recent developments is that
> we\'ve been moving in the opposite direction. Funding for export
> credit agencies of other governments have been growing. In addition,
> foreign governments have been utilizing other mechanisms such as
> market windows in order to get around the OECD arrangements. I mean,
> the U.S. had to exercise a lot of influence at the OECD in order to
> try to place these limitations and restrictions on the offering of
> credits and to really reduce the playing field to a straight price and
> quality competition, in which I am convinced the U.S. would do very
> well indeed.
>
> Given these developments, I think the need for the Ex-Im Bank to have
> the resources to carry out its function and also to have the mandate
> to, in effect, come up against these new mechanisms that other
> countries are now using is extremely important. The Senate-passed
> version of the Ex-Im Bank reauthorization bill gives the Ex-Im Bank
> explicit authority to match financing terms that are being offered by
> so-called market windows which, as you know, are government-sponsored
> enterprises which provide export financing at below-market rates.
>
> The foreign governments, which support them, and notably, in this
> regard, Germany and Canada, claim these enterprises are not official
> export credit agencies and therefore not subject to the discipline of
> the OECD arrangement. We\'re simply not going to accept that, and
> we\'re going to be prepared to compete with them. The bill also
> directs the U.S. to seek negotiations in the OECD for multilateral
> disciplines and transparency for market windows.
>
> As I indicated, I think U.S. exporters are able to compete very
> effectively in the market on the basis of price and quality. In a
> world in which export subsidies did not exist, if you had such a
> world, I think the U.S. would do very well, but the fact of the matter
> is we don\'t live in such a world today. When foreign governments
> provide subsidies to their exporters, the U.S. has to respond or our
> exporters will clearly be placed at a competitive disadvantage, not
> because of some economic competition in the market, but because of the
> actions of foreign governments in support of their own exporters.
>
> The Ex-Im Bank has a critical role to play in leveling the playing
> field for U.S. exporters by matching the public financing made
> available by foreign governments and, furthermore, the Ex-Im Bank
> provides important leverage to U.S. negotiators seeking to achieve
> international agreements to limit the use of government export
> subsidies.
>
> I\'ve been a very strong supporter. I think, as you know, of the war
> chest, again, because I think that we have to be able to, in effect,
> back foreign governments off. I think if the U.S. which, if it\'s
> prepared to do it, has very deep pockets, can really pretty well
> compel others to pull back and, if not, then we match them, and then
> our exporters can go in on a fair basis and see what they can do, in
> terms of getting the contract. As I indicated, if we can keep the
> competition straight out to price and quality, I think we\'ll come out
> ahead, if not all the time, at least most of the time.
>
> Now let me mention one other issue, which I think is extremely
> important, and we just did a hearing on it yesterday, and I want to
> take just a moment or two to touch on it. Before I turn to it, let me
> say that we are going to hold a hearing on the 14th of May of the
> Trade Promotion Coordinating Committee.
>
> A number of years ago I chaired a hearing in our committee on exports,
> and export promotion and so forth. We had a number of representatives
> from different departments and agencies of the federal government. We
> had about 10 of them at the table, all of whom deal with exports in
> one way or another. So I said to them, as they were each sort of
> putting out their program and so forth, I said, \"Well, let me ask you
> this question. How many of you know one or more of the other people
> sitting at the table here with you?\"
>
> It was staggering. They didn\'t know one another. Now these are, you
> know, Department of Agriculture, Department of Commerce, Ex-Im Bank,
> the SBA, the OPIC, the TDA, and on and on, through all of the relevant
> departments and agencies. They\'d sent the point person, as it were,
> who deals with the export issue, and they didn\'t know one another,
> which of course only dramatized the fact that we had no overall
> coordinated government policy on exports, that we lacked this
> interrelationship which ought to exist as certainly within the
> Executive Branch as we dealt with that issue.
>
> So, out of that, we put together the Trade Promotion Coordinating
> Committee, which required these groups to meet as a group under the
> chairmanship of the Department of Commerce. They were required to come
> up each year with a trade promotion strategy, with a report that set
> out a trade promotion strategy, and of course it has had the impact,
> within the Executive Branch of the government, of finally forcing them
> to start thinking together and evolving a coordinated, comprehensive
> plan.
>
> Now we\'re not altogether where I\'d like to be, but we\'ve made, I
> think, enormous strides in that regard, and on the 14th of May, very
> shortly, we\'re going to be holding a hearing in the Banking, Housing,
> and Urban Affairs Committee, which I\'m now privileged to chair. All
> hail to Vermont, if I may say that.
>
> \[Laughter.\]
>
> SENATOR SARBANES: And we\'ll have the Department of Commerce and the
> Ex-Im Bank, OPIC, the TDA\--I saw Thelma Askey here with us\--and the
> SBA at that hearing, which are kind of the lead group within the
> export strategy.
>
> Now the issue I wanted to touch on, on which we held the hearings
> yesterday, which some of you may have read about in the press today,
> was we held a hearing yesterday with Treasury Secretary O\'Neill on
> the Treasury\'s Annual Report to the Congress on international,
> economic and exchange rate policy. This was put into place back in
> 1988, when we concluded that we weren\'t keeping close enough
> tabs\--we, the Congress\--close enough tabs on international economic
> policy, and particularly on the exchange rate and the possibility of
> its manipulation by other governments in order to gain trade
> advantage.
>
> It\'s one thing to have a textbook theory of how you compete and how
> the markets operate, but if that\'s going to be the case and that\'s
> generally the path we follow, we support markets, and that\'s how we
> think economies ought to be organized. But if other governments are
> intervening in those markets to the advantage of their own people, and
> you don\'t take some measures to address or counter that, obviously,
> you\'re on the downward slope, particularly if their interventions are
> skewing the operation of the market. In other words, you need to back
> them out of that situation. I am not coming and advocating our
> intervention to skew the market, but I am strongly advocating our
> intervention to preclude others from trying to skew the market in
> order to back them out.
>
> Well, we had this hearing with Secretary O\'Neill yesterday. We\'re
> very concerned about the current account deficit, which is running
> very large, and I have to say very candidly to you that I was taken
> aback when Secretary O\'Neill, the Secretary of the Treasury,
> indicated not only that he thought nothing should be done about the
> dollar, and I\'ll touch, in a moment, of the testimony we received
> about its overvaluation, but that he doesn\'t even consider the U.S.
> current account deficit, which last year was over 4 percent of GDP and
> may go up to 5 percent this year as a problem. I mean, his attitude to
> that was no problem, but this is a view that hardly any other informed
> observer of the world economy shares.
>
> We had Alan Greenspan a couple of weeks ago, and he said that at some
> point this large current account deficit is a real problem, and we
> need to be aware of that because we\'re building up these tremendous
> obligations that we owe abroad. Now we can carry them at the moment
> because they continue to pump money into the United States, but you
> become more and more dependent\--that wonderful in \"A Street Car
> Named Desire\" about dependent on the kindness of strangers\--and I
> don\'t think that\'s where we want to be, if I may say so.
>
> We also heard yesterday from representatives of the National
> Association of Manufacturers, from the American Farm Bureau
> Federation, the AFL-CIO on the devastating impact which the
> overvaluation of the dollar is having on U.S. manufacturers, workers
> and farmers.
>
> Jerry Jasinowski, the President of the NAM, said in his testimony to
> the committee, and I quote him, \"The overvaluation of the dollar is
> one of the most serious economic problems, perhaps the most serious
> economic problem now facing manufacturing in this country. It is
> decimating U.S. manufacturing exports, artificially stimulating
> imports, and putting hundreds of thousands of American workers out of
> work. It is leading to plant closures and to the off-shore movement of
> production away from the United States with harmful, long-term
> consequences for future U.S. economic leadership.\"
>
> I agree very strongly with that statement. Because what happens, and
> Japan and China are both examples of this, they are constantly
> intervening in order to keep their currency from appreciating so that
> they can sustain a competitive advantage in terms of the trade
> relationship. Once, again, this is an instance in which most
> reasonable observers conclude that the markets are not being allowed
> to operate the way they\'re supposed to. Everyone says, well, you
> can\'t intervene in the market. Let the market set the exchange rate.
>
> Fine. Fine. But if the other countries are intervening in the market
> in order to affect the exchange rate to their advantage in trade
> terms, and we do nothing to counter that, then, in a sense, we\'re on
> our way to being taken to the cleaners, and I, for one, feel very
> keenly that that ought not to happen.
>
> So we intend to pursue this issue. I think it\'s an important issue,
> and we\'re going to maintain close oversight of U.S. policy in the
> area. And if you\'ve not seen the articles in today\'s papers
> reporting on the hearing, I commend them to you.
>
> Let me simply close by, again, expressing my strong support for the
> Ex-Im Bank. The important public purposes served by the Bank is the
> basis for the broad bipartisan support which the Bank has enjoyed in
> the Congress. I am hopeful that we can complete this reauthorization
> in the near future. That will give the Bank\--well, the Senate bill
> goes to 2006. So we were trying to provide a good, long stretch. I
> also wanted to get the reauthorization out of the first year of a new
> administration, which is, of course, what happened last year, but
> it\'s very difficult to have a new administration. You get a new
> Chairman. You need to put it all into place, and then at the same time
> to be confronted with the possibility that your reauthorization is
> going to expire and to try to work that in through the Congress is a
> very heavy task.
>
> So we tried to get, the House bill is shorter than that, but we\'ll
> try and see what we can do in the conference to get a good extension,
> so we don\'t have to redo this thing as frequently. It probably needs
> to be done from time to time because that constitutes the basis for a
> careful reexamination, and there are many members of the Congress who
> I don\'t think would simply want to put it out there permanently
> without it having to come back, but we ought to get a good stretch of
> time in there, so it\'s not constantly hanging over the Bank.
>
> I look forward to continuing to work closely with the exporting
> community. You are an enormously increasingly important part of the
> workings of our economy. As I said before, I particularly like working
> with you because I think, if you\'re given a level playing field and
> fair terms, you can outcompete anybody around the world, and that\'s
> what we\'re out to try to do.
>
> Thank you all very much.
>
> \[Applause.\]
>
> MR. : Ladies and gentlemen, at this time, please welcome, once again,
> Vanessa Weaver, member of the Board of Directors, of the Ex-Im Bank of
> the United States.
>
> \[Applause.\]
>
> MS. WEAVER: Thank you very much.
>
> I wanted to thank Senator Sarbanes for all of his work. He\'s been a
> splendid champion of the Ex-Im Bank for many, many years, and without
> him we would not be working as efficiently as we are. So thank you
> very, very much.
>
> I am delighted to open this afternoon\'s Small Business Award
> ceremony. We will honor three companies for their successful
> contribution to U.S. small business exporting and job creation. This
> event, more than any other at our conference, reflects the revolution
> that\'s taken place at Export-Import Bank to support small business
> exporters.
>
> Since 1983, we\'ve worked with Congress, with Senator Sarbanes, to
> support small- and medium-size enterprises. Under the direction of the
> U.S. Congress, we set aside 10 percent of our financing and 20 percent
> of our transactions for small business. We have far surpassed those
> goals.
>
> Last year, 18 percent of Ex-Im Bank\'s total authorization supported
> small business, and 90 percent of our transactions involved small
> business. Our small business financing totaled \$1.6 billion, and
> working capital guarantee financing increased nearly 15 percent to a
> record \$660 million. We issued 1,723 export credit insurance policies
> to small businesses, with authorizations totaling more than \$900
> million.
>
> The increase in working capital guarantees is due largely to our
> efforts to reach out to asset-based lenders and small community banks,
> to reach out to the small businesses and their communities, and to
> give them the kind of financing with our guarantees, to get them and
> their exports out all over the world.
>
> The Export-Import Bank also reaches out to a broad range of lenders
> through marketing initiatives, such as our delegated authority lender
> program. This program allows local lenders to give their customers
> speedy approval on Ex-Im Bank working capital guarantees without prior
> Bank approval.
>
> We continue to build on our strong relationships with our city-state
> partners. We recognize you are here today. Strategic partnerships with
> public and private organizations are key to us because they help us
> leverage our resources to reach out to more small business exporters,
> and the evolution continues. As you know, export credit insurance is
> one of our most important programs for small business.
>
> Today, I\'d like to introduce my colleague, Joe Grandmaison, who will
> announce the winner of the Small Business Broker of the Year.
>
> Joe Grandmaison.
>
> \[Applause.\]
>
> MR. GRANDMAISON: Thank you. Thank you very much, Vanessa.
>
> For those of you who attended the Sub-Saharan Africa event and saw my
> somewhat questionable performance, I want you to know they given me a
> script, so I\'ll use the script. Except for the fact that, Mr.
> Chairman, my friend Eduardo, I\'d like to just take one note of
> personal privilege, if you will, to introduce my successor at TDA.
> Thelma Askey leads a spectacular group of professionals. I tell people
> I loved every single day at TDA, except when I had to contact OMB.
> That was the single only exception.
>
> So, Thelma, would you please stand. I\'d like to thank you for joining
> us.
>
> \[Applause.\]
>
> MR. GRANDMAISON: Senator Sarbanes, Chairman Aguirre, thank you,
> Vanessa.
>
> It\'s my honor to introduce to you the winner of Ex-Im Bank\'s award
> for Small Business Broker of the Year, Trade Accept Group of Edina,
> E-d-i-n-a, Minnesota.
>
> This six-year-old company, based on suburban Minneapolis, had more
> than 60 small business export insurance policies and 12 applications
> pending as of the fiscal year 2001. It has been particularly
> successful in helping small businesses gain access to Ex-Im Bank\'s
> working capital guarantees and arranging medium-term loans for foreign
> buyers of capital equipment.
>
> Trade Acceptance Group also actively promotes insurance to small
> business exporters, and its two principles, Curtis L. Hanson and
> Leslie A. Bergland, frequently voluntarily speak at seminars and other
> forums about Ex-Im Bank\'s services and other export support
> initiatives.
>
> I am honored to present Ex-Im Bank\'s award for Small Business Broker
> of the Year to Leslie A. Bergland of Trade Acceptance Group.
>
> Leslie?
>
> \[Applause.\]
>
> MS. BERGLAND: I didn\'t realize I would have to be the first one up
> here.
>
> We are really honored by this. Curt and I have really dedicated our
> business focus to working with small- and medium-size companies\--not
> to say that we won\'t work with large companies. We have a number of
> those, also, but we certainly can\'t do this on our own. It\'s really
> a team effort, particularly with the Exporter Underwriting Division,
> the Buyer Underwriting Division. Without them, none of this would have
> happened.
>
> I would also like to recognize the regional offices of Ex-Im Bank,
> particularly our friends in the Chicago office, for all of their
> assistance and support. Also, we have many banking relationships as
> our partners in providing financing for our customers, which obviously
> is very important in getting these deals done.
>
> I would also like to recognize all of our customers, our insureds,
> friends, and our support system that we\'ve had. Six years ago when we
> left the wonders of international banking, many people thought we were
> kind of nuts in starting up a new business, but it\'s been great, and
> again we\'re really pleased to be here, and thank you for this award.
>
> \[Applause.\]
>
> MS. WEAVER: Thank you.
>
> And now to present our Small Business Exporter of the Year, my
> colleague and fellow Board member, Dan Renberg.
>
> \[Applause.\]
>
> MR. RENBERG: Thank you, Vanessa.
>
> Wasn\'t that marketing video exceptional this morning? Wasn\'t that
> really wonderful? Let\'s give them a round of applause, the Public
> Affairs team at Ex-Im Bank.
>
> \[Applause.\]
>
> MR. RENBERG: That video certainly has changed my life. Just on the way
> into this lunch, I signed 29 autographs. I, of course, have 28 of them
> still here.
>
> \[Laughter.\]
>
> MR. RENBERG: Thank you, Cheryl, that was for you\--Cheryl Crispen, our
> V.P. Public Affairs.
>
> In keeping with the Grandmaison tradition of introducing dignitaries,
> I am very privileged to have two such dignitaries at my table. Since
> 9/11, it\'s become fashionable in America to think about the newly
> independent states, the Commonwealth of Independent States. At Ex-Im
> Bank, we were there before it was fashionable. Ex-Im Bank has been
> committed to that region. You heard earlier today that we\'re going
> open long term in Russia, but I\'m very privileged to have, and I\'d
> like them to stand, the ambassadors of Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan. I
> think we should give them a hand. They\'ve been so helpful in the war
> against terrorism.
>
> \[Applause.\]
>
> MR. RENBERG: I can\'t give you loan guarantees, but we can give you
> applause. That\'s a good start.
>
> \[Laughter.\]
>
> MR. RENBERG: I\'m wearing several hats today. One is to present a
> Small Business Exporter of the Year Award, but I also have the
> privilege of representing the Renewable Energy Export Advisory
> Committee that we announced earlier today. Ex-Im Bank, as you heard
> from our Vice Chair, is committed to supporting the renewable energy
> industry in this country, and it is a coincidence. I swear there was
> no fix. The French judge was not involved, but a wind-power company
> has won the Small Business Exporter of the Year Award.
>
> What I can tell you about Andrew Kruse and his company, Southwest Wind
> Power in Flagstaff, Arizona, is that they were using our export credit
> insurance. They are shipping wind turbines, small wind turbines, I
> think 400 to 3,000 watts, primarily for off-grid applications, rural
> applications, they are shipping them to about 50 countries. Now they
> are using us for about 20 of them. They have used us for a deal as
> small as a \$1,500 transaction to St. Lucia. They have used us to
> emerging markets like Spain and Germany, also.
>
> \[Laughter.\]
>
> MR. RENBERG: When I asked Andrew how he got his start, it\'s
> comparable to the formulation of Hewlett-Packard, the concept of a
> couple of people with a garage. In this case, they didn\'t even have
> the garage. They went out into the open areas near Flagstaff and
> started a company that now has 48 employees. He\'s been doing this for
> about 20 years.
>
> The irony that I learned about Andrew\'s company, Southwest Wind
> Power, is that they didn\'t even have electricity when they started
> their company. They had to make their first generators wind-powered so
> they\'d have enough juice to make their product.
>
> It is with great, great pride, on behalf of the renewable energy
> sector, that it gives me a chance to welcome you, for you the Exporter
> of the Year Small Business category, Andrew Kruse from Southwest Wind
> Power.
>
> \[Applause.\]
>
> MR. KRUSE: Thank you very much.
>
> Before I get started, I just wanted to say, Senator, your speech was
> just right on. I\'m very impressed with the knowledge that you have
> there, and the many things you discussed are exactly what us, as
> manufacturers here in the United States, are looking for, the dollar,
> the issues internationally, I\'m very impressed with that.
>
> Really, this award really goes to the employees of Southwest Wind
> Power because they are the ones that have really made it happen. My
> partner, David Kelly, and I started this company many years ago with a
> dream, and that was to make a difference in the world, somehow using
> renewable energy products.
>
> We now have distributors in over 50 countries. Our products are
> constantly finding new markets. Through the use of wind, we bring
> light, knowledge, and new opportunities to our customers. But with all
> of that, we both sit back, and we look at our success, but we realize
> we\'ve just only begun.
>
> My special thanks goes out to my sales staff, Rod, and Ricardo, and
> Sean, and John, and Ketter, and the rest of the gang there, and to
> Steve and Diane. These are people in our Shipping Department who have
> really worked hard in trying to understand the bureaucracy of the
> world because it\'s not that easy. Once you just ship and sell a
> product, it\'s getting it there and getting it into the hands of your
> customers. It\'s very important, and Meridian Finance, which has been
> a very important part of our success in working with Ex-Im Bank.
>
> Lastly, I want to also thank Ex-Im Bank, for they have not only helped
> us out to be successful through their programs, but they have also
> helped our customers be successful, which I, in turn, believe in the
> future will make the world successful.
>
> So thank you very much.
>
> \[Applause.\]
>
> MS. WEAVER: For a final award, I am here to recognize the Small
> Business Bank of the Year. This year the award goes to Wells Fargo
> HSBC of San Francisco, California. Established in 1995, the Trade Bank
> is a joint venture between Wells Fargo and HSBC. It focuses on
> international banking needs of small businesses that are doing
> international business for the first time.
>
> In just five years, the Trade Bank became the number one lender of
> Ex-Im Bank Working Capital Guarantees. Last year they supported \$68
> million of Ex-Im Working Capital Guarantees and \$358 million in U.S.
> exports.
>
> It is my pleasure to present Ex-Im Bank\'s award for Small Business
> Bank of the Year to Dave Webber, President and CEO of the Trade Bank,
> and Ken Petrilla, Senior Vice President.
>
> \[Applause.\]
>
> MR. WEBBER: Thank you, Vanessa.
>
> On behalf of my colleagues at the Wells Fargo HSBC Trade Bank, I\'d
> like to thank the Ex-Im Bank and tell you that we\'re very honored to
> receive this award.
>
> There is no doubt in my mind that the most gratifying part of what we
> do for a living is helping small and new companies establish new
> markets overseas and watching them grow their employment growth and
> become prosperous by being able to sell overseas, particularly small
> businesses, which is our area of specialty. There is no doubt in my
> mind, also, that these companies would not be able to do it without
> the assistance of the Ex-Im Bank.
>
> There\'s two groups of people I\'d like to recognize in my remarks.
> One is my colleagues at the Bank, and particularly Ken Petrilla and
> Brent Marshall, without whose leadership I\'m sure we wouldn\'t have
> won this award.
>
> Secondly, I\'d like to give a genuine thanks and gratitude to the
> colleagues we work with at the Ex-Im Bank. It is remarkable to us
> that, being a West Coast bank, how often that we call at 5 o\'clock
> West Coast time, 8 o\'clock East Coast time, thinking that we\'re
> going to get a voice mail from somebody at the Ex-Im Bank to be able
> to leave a message, and they actually pick up the phone, and they are
> still live working at that hour.
>
> I would particularly like to recognize two people whom we work very
> closely with and, to me, personify the spirit of professionalism of
> the Ex-Im Bank or the spirit of professionalism that anyone would
> aspire to, and that is Pam Bowers and Sam Zitzer, whom we\'ve had a
> relationship with for a number of years, and they have really gone out
> of their way.
>
> \[Applause.\]
>
> MR. WEBBER: So we\'re delighted to receive the award, and we are very
> grateful to you.
>
> Thank you very much.
>
> \[Applause.\]
>
> MS. WEAVER: Thank you.
>
> Well, this concludes our awards ceremony. Please feel free to have
> some dessert. We may still hear from J.C. Watts. We expect him any
> moment now. If there\'s a change in plans, we\'ll let you know, but
> have a great dessert and thanks very much.
>
> \[Applause.\]
>
> \[Whereupon, the luncheon proceedings were concluded.\]