Lisbon, April 10, 2025 (Lusa) - Portugal's government has launched four measures to quickly support exporting companies in the face of the tariffs launched by the US, which include credit lines, credit insurance and the expansion of support for internationalisation, it announced on Thursday.
At the end of the cabinet meeting, the economy minister, Pedro Reis, announced the launch of the Reinforce Programme, which will have €10 billion, including the launch of credit lines totalling €8.6 billion, through the Banco Português do Fomento (BPF).
In this context, more than €5 billion will be available in the reprogramming and reinforcement of the BPF Invest EU lines for working capital and investment support, and the BPF Invest Export PT line has now been created, with a further €3.5 billion.
According to a document made available by the government, this line will be able to provide guarantees for financing exporting companies, "with the capacity to transform the financing into a subsidy, by evaluating the performance of results".
The credit insurance ceiling will also increase by €1.2 billion, now covering not only emerging countries but also "traditional markets."
According to the government, there will be a "reinforcement of the export credit insurance allocations of the Portuguese Export Credit Agency (ECA), for the search for new markets and the reinforcement of traditional markets", as well as the "start of the integration of the Portuguese Export Credit Agency into the Banco de Fomento" and the "partial subsidisation of export credit insurance premiums for new markets".
The government also intends to expand projects to support internationalisation, strengthening "collective programmes" that allow companies to attend more trade fairs.
This measure aims to "increase the international presence of SMEs through participation in fairs and international events, and by carrying out prospecting and external marketing actions", and "projects can be developed individually or in conjunction with associative entities", totalling €150 million.
The aim is also to "strengthen international promotion campaigns and joint prospecting of new markets", where "projects can be developed by associations or public agencies with competences in the area of internationalisation", with an allocation of €50 million.
The minister also recalled programmes worth €2.6 billion that were already underway and will be "brought forward" so that companies can benefit from them in the coming months.
According to Pedro Reis, this strategy aims to enable companies to "respond to and mitigate" the impact of tariffs in Portugal and to support exporters' search for new markets.
The programme will cover exporters based in Portugal.
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