Exportsicherheit

The economic shock in Brazil at the beginning of the 1950s posed a massive threat to West Germany’s export trade because Hermes, the export credit insurance provider that had been founded only shortly beforehand, proved to be deficient as it did not sufficiently cover the transfer or conversion risk involved. This case thus created a situation which required drastic action, during the course of which intensive and complex negotiations between countless actors from the state and the private sector collapsed. The subsequent compromise of covering the transfer or conversion risk, which was finally found two years later, then provided the greater security the foreign trade sector desired and demanded.