U.S. Department of Agriculture

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) provides financial support for U.S. agricultural exports through various programs, including the following:

• The GSM-102 program provides credit guarantees for up to three years and covers 98 percent of the export value and up to 2.8 percentage points of interest on the guaran­teed value.
• The GSM-103 program offers credit guarantees with terms of longer than three but not more than ten years. Both guarantees cover commercial and noncommercial risks.
• Public Law 480 authorizes U.S. government financing of sales of U.S. agricultural prod­ucts to friendly countries on concessional terms.

In addition to government programs, more than a dozen state governments have intro­duced export financing programs. Some of the programs implemented in California and Illinois have the following essential features: (1) they offer state-funded loan guarantees; (2) preshipment and postshipment assistance is available in the form of loans to lenders and loan guarantees to exporters and their banks; and (3) the state agency acts as a delivery agent for Eximbank programs.

Source: Seyoum Belay (2014), Export-import theory, practices, and procedures, Routledge; 3rd edition.