Export Finance: Federal Efforts to Support Working Capital Needs of Small Business

Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the current government programs that provide export working capital for small- and medium-sized enterprises (SME), focusing on: (1) federal and state approaches for providing export working capital; (2) federal efforts to harmonize the export working capital programs of the U.S. Export-Import Bank (Eximbank) and the Small Business Administration (SBA); (3) issues associated with increasing the number of cooperative agreements with lenders and devolving greater responsibility for export working capital programs to the states; and (4) the potential implications of transferring SBA's export working capital program to Eximbank.