CONFIDENTIAL
I think you will appreciate that my concern arises as much on the general principle involved as on its effect on this individual case. On the general score, what troubles me most is that from almost every standpoint,
ability to pull off whole projects in the civil aviation field must be severely limited if 5 years credit is to apply even where the business is well in excess of the £2. m. minimum for Financial Guarantees. In various markets and lines of business, as I recall, E.C.G.D. are doing 5 years credit for individual orders in the thousand and tens of thousand pound range, admittedly against competition. 5 years credit for 5 m. export content on a project strikes me as an open invitation to competition to make the running and to take the initiative sway from us. Would it not be desirable to ascertain, for example, what teras other credit insurers have done or are willing in principle to do for projects with export content well in excess of £2 m. in the civil aviation and other fields, before we cramp our own style unduly?
I know this is all rather well-trodden ground, but I do not see how we can or why we should avoid going over it again if the existing practice leaves us at a disadvantage in tackling individual projects as a whole, instead of piecemeal.
Copies of this letter go to the recipients of yours and W. S. Carter (FCO).
(D. C. SMITH)
CONFIDENTIAL