Japan Bank Weighs Loans for 3 Southern States
The government-owned Export-Import Bank of Japan is studying a request from three Southern U.S. states for subsidized loans, but a decision on the matter is still a way off, bank officials said today.
The governors of Arkansas, Louisiana and Mississippi first raised the idea of the low-cost loans in September, 1988. The bank has been informally studying the possibility since then.
“It is very premature,” said Tadahiko Nakagawa, manager of the bank’s international relations division. “The concept has not gained a consensus within the bank or the government.”
Officials denied a local press report that the bank plans to extend funds, possibly totaling $3 billion to $4 billion, for regional development in the United States.
None of the states has yet put forward a specific project for the bank to study, they said.
If the Export-Import Bank did decide to proceed with the plan, the loans could be used for roads, bridges or other projects designed to attract Japanese companies to set up factories in underdeveloped areas of the United States.
Bank officials admitted that the proposal is fraught with difficulties. For example, the officials question why the bank should provide low-cost loans to one of the world’s richest countries when poorer nations are crying for money.
On the plus side, the loans could be used to help allay mounting U.S. concern about Japan’s growing economic might and huge trade surplus.
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