2004: June 24 : OECD countries and Non-Member Economies exchange views on export credits issues

1. Representatives from more than 40 countries interested in export credits issues met in Paris on 24 June 2004 at the OECD, bringing together representatives of both OECD countries and non-OECD economies. Representatives of Brazil, Chile, Chinese Taipei, Colombia, India, Israel, Hong-Kong-China, Peru, Romania and Slovenia exchanged views with the Members of the OECD's Export Credit Group (ECG) and Participants to the Export Credit Arrangement on several issues relating to the work undertaken at the OECD on export credit issues.  Other countries invited but were unable to attend included Argentina, China, Russia and South Africa.
2. The meeting was chaired by Mr. Mike ROBERTS, Deputy Head of the Permanent Delegation of Australia to the OECD and Vice-Chairman of the ECG and the Participants to the Arrangement. The participants to this outreach meeting focused their debates on:
   • The latest version of the Arrangement on Officially Supported Export Credits, which has been in force since early 2004; they discussed in particular the latest provisions on transparency and communication between the Participants and the non-Participants to the Arrangement.
   • The OECD Recommendation on Environment and Officially Supported Export Credits adopted in December 2003, which sets out the guidelines to be implemented by OECD Members giving their support to a project that is likely to impact on the environment.
   • An update on the implementation of the 2000 Action Statement on Bribery, which invites ECG Members to adopt and implement the necessary measures in their export credits schemes to combat bribery, and which contributes to the anti-bribery efforts undertaken  by OECD Member countries through the OECD Recommendations and Convention on Bribery in International Business Transactions.
   • The implementation of the 2001 Statement of Principles on Unproductive Expenditure adopted to discourage the provision of officially supported export credits for such expenditures in Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPCs) in support the World Bank HIPC Debt initiative
3. During this meeting, representatives of Romania and Slovenia also presented their medium and long-term export credit schemes for officially supported export credits.
4. Non-Member Economies expressed their appreciation for what they described as a valuable exercise.

OECD Secretariat
28 June2004