GSM Export Credit Guarantees

Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on the Department of Agriculture's (USDA) Office of the General Sales Manager (GSM) export credit guarantee programs, intended to promote the export of U.S. agricultural commodities. GAO noted that: (1) from January 1980 through August 17, 1994, USDA issued about $51.1 billion of GSM credit guarantees to 61 countries, with Mexico, South Korea, Iraq, Algeria, and the former Soviet Union accounting for 63 percent of all guarantees; (2) the total exposure from GSM guarantees was $12.4 billion, representing $6.7 billion in principal amounts not yet due, $3.5 billion in rescheduled debt, and $2.2 billion of unrecovered claims; (3) the former Soviet Union and Russia together accounted for 22 percent of the total exposure; (4) between 1980 and August 17, 1994, the Commodity Credit Corporation (CCC) paid claims for defaulted debt equal to $6.5 billion, and as of August 17, 1994, CCC had directly recovered $554 million of the claims paid and rescheduled another $3.7 billion of the claims paid; and (5) Iraq accounted for most of the remaining $2.2 billion in unrecovered claims.