What is GSM Credit?

The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Export Credit Guarantee Program (GSM-102) helps ensure that credit is available to finance commercial exports of U.S. agricultural products, while providing competitive credit terms to buyers. By reducing financial risk to lenders, credit guarantees encourage exports to buyers in countries—mainly developing countries—where credit is necessary to maintain or increase U.S. sales, but where financing may not be available without such guarantees.

The GSM-102 program underwrites credit extended by the private banking sector in the United States (or, less commonly, by the U.S. exporter) to approved foreign banks using dollar-denominated, irrevocable letters of credit for purchases of U.S. food and agricultural products by foreign buyers. USDA’s Foreign Agricultural Service (FAS) administers the program on behalf of the Commodity Credit Corporation (CCC), which issues the credit guarantees. GSM-102 covers credit terms of up to two years.

The CCC selects agricultural commodities and products according to market potential and eligibility based on applicable legislative and regulatory requirements.