THE US is going to match Chinese terms with cut-price export financing for the first time to help General Electric win an order for 150 diesel-electric locomotives from Pakistan. With Chinese President Hu Jintao due in Washington next week, the move suggests President Barack Obama will continue to push China to follow global standards on trade. Wed rather that you play by the rules, but if youre not going to play by the rules, then well meet you, Fred Hochberg, chairman and president of the Export-Import Bank of the US, told the Financial Times. Eximbank will encourage US exporters to fight for contracts even when Chinas financing terms seem unbeatable. It will finance $437m of the $477m deal, which is awaiting approval by a Pakistani court, but it will have to go against international rules to match the Chinese offer. The rules, managed by the Paris-based Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, limit the term of export credits to 10 years. China, which is not a signatory to the OECD agreement, offered to finance locomotives for Pakistan over 12 years. A formula set by the OECD would require a minimum fee of about 21 per cent for a 12-year export credit to Pakistan. The fee, which reflects credit risk, can be paid up front or over the life of the loan. It comes on top of interest, set as the medium-term Treasury yield plus 100 basis points. China Eximbank proposed a fee of about 8 per cent and the US Ex-Im Bank agreed to match it. Mr Hochberg said he could act in this case because unusually, there was evidence of the Chinese offer. Pakistans dollar bonds maturing in 2017 were yielding 10 per cent on Tuesday, suggesting Ex-Ims terms are aggressive, but Mr Hochberg said he was confident that the deal would have no cost to the US taxpayer. The US has two big high-technology makers of diesel electric locomotives in GE and Electro-Motive Diesel, a subsidiary of Caterpillar, but Chinese companies are competing aggressively in international markets. The GE locomotives would be built in Erie, Pennsylvania, making them an example of how Mr Obama would like to use exports to help the US recovery. Ex-Im Banks financing creates a level playing field for US companies to compete and, ultimately, lays the foundation to sustain existing and create new US high-tech manufacturing jobs, GE said.