00:00Thank you, Madam Chairwoman, and I also just want to recognize and appreciate that in our conversation setting at this hearing that we set up a bipartisan panel, so I do appreciate that because, again, market access, you know, helping our companies be successful around the world is not a Democratic or Republican agenda item.
00:21It's something that I think we all care about. I appreciate the witnesses, you know, obviously, have gotten to know Wendy Cutler and Matt Goodman over the years and have had the pleasure of working with you and certainly look forward to hearing from the Republican witnesses.
00:39I've said this a lot, you know, had I had a magic wand, we'd go back to 2014 and we would have had TPP in place and, you know, we would have had a framework for the movement of goods and services.
00:50We're not there yet, so we are where we are.
00:54I do think it's incredibly important for us as we go through a State Department authorization process.
01:01This is not exactly how I would have gone about reorganizing the State Department.
01:06I would have done it in a slightly different way than President Trump has chosen to do it,
01:12but we find ourselves with an opportunity to think about what a 21st century State Department would look like,
01:21what 21st century tools of economic engagement, economic development, of trade, of tariffs would look like and where that's best housed.
01:30I know in our analysis, as we've talked to others, I do think it is incredibly important to have economics as part of the State Department,
01:38to have representatives around the world within our embassies out there promoting U.S. goods, products,
01:44working with our companies to help them navigate, you know, foreign markets and so forth.
01:50I also think it's very important, you know, as we watch these tariff conversations unfold,
01:57that we take it as an opportunity perhaps to remove tariff barriers.
02:02You know, again, this isn't exactly how I would have gone about doing it.
02:05I certainly would not have targeted, you know, countries like Australia where we actually have a trade surplus,
02:11close allies like Japan and Korea, but I am happy that the President is prioritizing some of the Indo-Pacific nations
02:20as first places to enter into negotiations.
02:23And, you know, having just returned from Korea, having some real interesting conversations,
02:29I'm happy that the U.S. Trade Representative is in Korea right now engaging in some of those,
02:35have had conversations with the Japanese and others.
02:37Also, I think there's a unique opportunity with the ASEAN nations.
02:42You know, we had dinner, you know, a few weeks ago with the ASEAN ambassadors,
02:46and they're looking for guidance here in terms of how to approach this.
02:51But there's a very real recognition from the Southeast Asian nations
02:55that they don't want the United States to leave these markets.
02:58So I do think there's an opportunity there.
03:01Lastly, I think some of the important things that were accomplished under the Biden administration
03:06were programs like the Mineral Security Partnership.
03:09These are important programs in the sense that as we look for redundant supply chains
03:14so we're not solely dependent on a single source, in this case Beijing and the PRC,
03:22it is an opportunity for us to work with like-valued allies like Japan, Korea, Australia
03:29to build redundant supply chains for these rare earth elements and critical minerals.
03:33I think you need State Department diplomacy to help negotiate a lot of these deals and so forth.
03:40So, you know, I think we should be very careful in dismantling, you know, some of this expertise.
03:47And lastly, I would say, you know, while IPEF was not, you know, exactly how I would approach trade,
03:54I think digital trade is incredibly important to what we do economically.
03:58I think, you know, getting a digital trade, digital services deal done that doesn't disadvantage U.S. companies,
04:07U.S. technology companies where we're dominant is incredibly important.
04:10I think, again, in these trade tariff negotiations and conversations,
04:15I think there's strong bipartisan support for us to get a context
04:19and some digital trade, digital services trade framework done.
04:24So, again, I look forward to hearing from the witnesses and from your expertise.
