business backgrounder | economy
AWB member Ryan Hilliard, owner of Hilliard’s Beer
in Ballard, didn’t go to D.C., but took matters into his own
hands and reached out to U.S. Sens. Patty Murray and Maria
Cantwell because, he said, “beer tends to be social and
political at the same time.”
– Ryan Hilliard, Hilliard’s Beer
It was critical for Hilliard because the company was
planning a massive export expansion to the largest beer distributor in Sweden. But, as a small-business owner, he needed the
loan guarantees and terms offered by the Ex-Im Bank to complete the deal.
“What we found was there were a lot of banks that would like to do the financing, but then they would come back and say,
‘We’re not too confident we are going to have this export bank and its terms around much longer,’” Hilliard said. “The uncertainty
around that seemed to cause a lot of consternation and made it so we were unable to get an export line of credit.”
Instead of waiting for Congress to act on the bank reauthorization, Hilliard said he worked out a deal with the Swedish
distributor to change the terms of the payment arrangement to move forward with the planned export expansion.
What frustrated Hilliard the most, he said, were those in Congress calling it a “handout to Boeing and all the big guys” when
the fact is the majority of Ex-Im Bank users are small businesses like his.
“It’s not really a ‘handout;’ the bank is here to help foreign trade. If we’re
all making more airplanes and making more beer and sending it overseas, we’ve
all got more jobs,” Hilliard said.
“The Northwest has garnered a fabulous worldwide
reputation for excellent beer. That’s something we
can export to the world, just like Boeing jets.”
820,569
after two long years, victory
No one had any idea it would take two years, a five-month lapse in the Ex-Im
Bank’s charter and a congressional Hail Mary and presidential approval Dec. 3
2015 to revive the federal bank.
The agreement was celebrated at a press conference Dec. 4 with U.S. senators
and representatives, local leaders and small-business owners at the new Boeing
Delivery Center in Seattle.
“We are very fortunate that lawmakers from Washington state all took a very
positive stance to getting the Ex-Im Bank reauthorized,” Roberts said. “Their leadership and influence, especially that of Senator
Maria Cantwell and Congressman Denny Heck, helped to bring the House and the Senate together to get the deal done.”
It will take several months for the Ex-Im Bank to get back up to full speed, but Washington’s employers — small and large —
are continuing to build things and brew beer
to ship around the globe.
“The Northwest has garnered a fabulous
worldwide reputation for excellent beer.
That’s something we can export to the world,
just like Boeing jets. We’ve got a great thing
going here,” Hilliard said.
A point on which most people, even
Congress, can agree.
Washington jobs are supported
by employers utilizing
Ex-Im Bank
http://exportersforexim.org/states/washington
www.ExIm.gov
www.awb.org/ex-im-videos
36 association of washington business
Mauricio Contreras discussed his 14 years of work at Manhasset Specialty Company in an AWBproduced video on how the Ex-Im Bank supports jobs in Yakima and across America.