Status Report on GAO's Reviews of the Targeted Export Assistance Program, the Export Enhancement Program, and the GSM-102/103 Export Credit Guarantee Programs

GAO discussed the status of several programs administered by the Department of Agriculture's Foreign Agricultural Service (FAS). GAO found that: (1) FAS has drafted proposed regulations for the Targeted Export Assistance (TEA) program; (2) FAS still does not have an adequate system of internal controls to effectively manage the TEA program; (3) FAS exercises minimal oversight of program participants; (4) FAS guidance to program participants on conducting evaluation remains unclear and is not consistently applied; (5) FAS has drafted proposed regulations for the Export Enhancement Program (EEP); (6) FAS does not centrally track new program initiatives until a commodity division forwards them for higher-level review; (7) FAS does not verify all categories of information needed to prove exporter eligibility or verify sales contract information; (8) EEP has helped to increase U.S. agricultural exports, particularly wheat, to many countries; (9) EEP is an important trade policy tool; (10) the Export Credit Guarantee Program's (GSM) regulations may not be adequate to prevent some questionable transactions in financing guaranteed loans; (11) the U.S.-based financial institutions holding GSM loan guarantees are owned by government banks of the countries purchasing the commodities; (12) about $3 billion in GSM loans have gone into default; and (13) FAS officials have drafted proposed amendments to the GSM program regulations.