Exporting to the United States – A Team Canada Inc Publication

5.2 Types of financial assistance

There are several types of basic financial assistance for export ventures: pre-shipment financing, post-shipment financing, medium-term financing and project financing.

Pre-shipment export financing

You may require additional financing to produce the goods or services your buyer wants. To persuade a lender to help you, you'll need a firm export sale and a contract that is acceptable to the lender in terms of repayment risk, payment terms, production timeframes, and recourse conditions.

Post-shipment export financing

This covers your financial needs during the time between shipping the goods and receiving payment for them.

Medium-term export financing

This is often used with capital goods exports. You can usually obtain such assistance for terms of 180 days to two years, and possibly for terms of as long as five years.

Project financing

This usually applies to large undertakings such as major capital projects. This is a less common export field for small- to medium-size Canadian businesses, since such projects tend to be long-term, complex and demanding. If you're considering becoming involved in one, be sure to obtain help from project-finance experts from the very beginning.

If you're intending to export services, you won't have exactly the same financial needs as exporters of goods. You can get an overview of financing service exports from the "Export Your Services" pages on this Web site.