A/HRC/38/48 to potential buyers offers an incentive to foreign buyers to choose an exporter. Insurance and guarantees reduce the risk to the domestic exporter of non-payment by the overseas buyer. 39. In practical terms, export credit agencies provide three main instruments to support domestic exporters (a) insurance, (b) short-, medium- and long-term export credits and (c) guarantees, often coupled with advisory services (market information).26 40. There are various models of export credit agency including: (a) Those which are State agencies or departments; (b) Government-owned State corporations that are operated independently but have government oversight; (c) Consortiums of public/private companies that may be controlled by a Government through funding or regulation.27 41. Export credit agencies fulfil the basic financial needs of exporters, including preexport working capital to short-term credit extended to importers; medium- to long-term financing support to overseas importers; and project financing and/or special export structures. Although their share of the overall financing of global trade remains small, they play an increasingly important role. 28 In 2015 alone, export credit agencies in OECD member nations provided $125 billion in credit, insurance, guarantees and interest support. 29 In the period 2012–2016, public export and investment insurance via export credit agencies totalled between $920 billion and $1.031 trillion. 30 They are also a significant source of public financial support for infrastructure projects in developing countries. While their mandate and objectives are commercial, they may produce positive impacts in developing countries, such as the creation of more and better jobs, or the provision of capital and climate finance in or to developing countries.31 42. Although export credit agencies support domestic exporters, they do so typically by providing financing for a project sponsor who is purchasing goods as part of a larger infrastructure project or supply chain. A significant number of the projects supported by export credit agencies, particularly large dams, oil pipelines, coal and nuclear power plants, chemical facilities, mining projects and forestry and plantation projects, may lead to adverse human rights impacts (A/66/271). Projects by export credit agencies have been associated with the forced displacement of local populations, poor conditions of work, suppression of the rights to freedom of expression and association and exposure to environmental complaints, as well as the destruction of cultural sites. 32 Export credit agencies have also been scrutinized by civil society for more systemic issues, such as the nature of the projects and industries they finance (for example, the arms trade) or their linkage to sovereign debt in developing countries.33 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 See Edna Shöne, Sustainable ECA business — an irreversible global trend, Global Policy Journal blog (February 2015). See Karyn Keenan, “Export credit agencies and the international law of human rights”, Halifax Initiative (2008). Although export credit agencies take various organizational forms, they are usually backed by a Government and operate in accordance with a government mandate. Both Ends, “Balancing risks: what export credit agencies can do for sustainable development” (January 2007). See https://globalnaps.org/issue/export-credit/. Berne Union aggregate statistics, 2016 year end, available from www.berneunion.org/DataReports. See Trinomics, “Pilot study of private finance mobilised by Denmark for climate action in developing countries” (2015). See Jubilee Australia, “Risky business. Shining a light on Australia’s export credit agency” (December 2009); ECA Watch, “Race to the bottom, take II” (September 2003); and Robert McCorquodale and Penelope Simons, “Responsibility beyond borders: State responsibility for extraterritorial violations by corporations of international human rights law”, Modern Law Review, vol. 70, No. 4 (July 2007). See European Network against Arms Trade, “European export credit agencies and the financing of arms trade” (2007) and European Network on Debt and Development, “Exporting goods or exporting debts? Export credit agencies and the roots of developing country debt” (December 2011). 9