Speeches

Thank you so much for that introduction and for having me today! I am thrilled to be here. I have been the Deputy Secretary of State for just over a month, and this is my first address in this job. It is no accident that I am speaking before this audience today. Because for me, this issue is not just a strategic focus; it is deeply personal. My father, as some of you may know, was also a diplomat. He started his career after World War II in the private sector, doing export-import out of New York, and wound up in Colombia, South America in the 1950s, helping to import Chryslers into Colombia.

He was very blessed when, in the late 1950s, at the age of 37, President Eisenhower started a program to bring individuals with private sector experience enter into the government to increase U.S. exports abroad. [My father's] first job in the Foreign Service was as a commercial attaché at the embassy in Montevideo, Uruguay. From that day until he took his last breath seven years ago, he maintained with every fiber in his being that commerce was the fundamental principle and pillar of U.S. foreign policy. He always would say that a good ambassador is, first and foremost, a good commercial attaché. Those were words that I always kept close to my when I was ambassador to Mexico years ago.

I think a lot of kids bond with their dad over sports or cars, I actually bonded with my dad over foreign policy. Which may explain why I am here today and the passion that I have for the government helping to facilitate private sector American investment abroad.

This conference is addressing what for me is a major passion: commercial diplomacy. One of our greatest assets as a country is our dynamic private sector, which I said at my confirmation hearing in the Senate. Our companies, our entrepreneurs, and our workers are the most innovative, productive, and growth-oriented in the world. This fundamental reality gives the U.S. immense influence when we interact with the rest of the world. And this is not just some new development. I am a student of history and a constitutional lawyer. From our earliest days as a republic, our founders understood that commerce—not wars of conquest, not imperial ambitions, and, to paraphrase Washington’s Farewell Address, not entangling foreign alliances—would be the principal means by which America engaged with and benefited from the rest of the world. I firmly believe that this idea is not just a historical fact but embodies the pragmatic and freedom-loving spirit of the American people that endures to this day. 

President Trump’s administration is committed to restoring this classic and common-sense principle to its rightful position as one of the pillars of our foreign policy. The American private sector is the greatest engine of growth and wealth, not only for the American people, but for the countries with which we do business, who benefit from our capital and our innovation.

As the former U.S. Ambassador to Mexico and now in my current role as Deputy Secretary of State, I’ve had the opportunity to witness firsthand the impact of commerce as a driver of positive foreign relations. One of the greatest strengths that the Department of State brings to the business community is our teams at embassies and consulates, which I regard as our crown jewels.

At every embassy, you have people (Americans and locals) who have expertise and knowledge about U.S. and foreign markets, and who can facilitate connections and advocate for good deals. When an American company is looking to find an export market or source materials, they often reach out to the embassy to help make connections.

And so, I certainly hope that those of you in this room who have interfaced with our embassies and consulates have had positive experiences. I know when I was an ambassador, I emphasized this to my team. I am instructing all of our outgoing ambassadors to make this a high priority and to ensure that this message reaches their teams.

I must say, it was somewhat disappointing in the last several years when I was back in Washington. I would sometimes be contacted by companies who had problems in Mexico and elsewhere, asking if I could help them. I would ask, 'What does the embassy say?' and then I would get remarks like, 'Well, they haven't really returned our phone calls,' or 'They didn't really consider it to be their business.' That ends now.

If any of you have a problem with something abroad and are not receiving full and enthusiastic support from our embassy and diplomatic personnel abroad, I need to know. Please, and I mean this with every fiber of my being, I want to make sure you get to the Deputy Secretary of State's office. I have a staff, including economic staff assistants, and we will make sure to rectify that problem immediately.

If there is a problem, hopefully there won’t be a problem, but again, this is one of our core messages to our entire global team: this is their job. You should not have to thank us. The private sector should not be thanking us because this is what we are paid to do. I want to make sure internally at the State Department that I am making this point clear: for way too long, commercial and economic affairs have taken a back seat to political and military affairs in our foreign policy. Again, those days are over.

The President has made it clear that one of the pillars of his foreign policy is to make America more prosperous. We at the State Department, under the leadership of Secretary Rubio, take that mandate very seriously and literally. If I hear any reports about this, I will take immediate action because, again, part of my job is to make your lives easier.

President Trump has outlined an aggressive agenda to pursue greater economic stability and independence for the United States. I am sure you have all been listening to the news and reading the news which portrays President Trump’s polices as coming at the expense of other countries. But a lot of the news likes to portray our policy as coming at the expense of other countries. I strongly reject that characterization. We are pursuing an America First agenda that has balanced, and fair trade based on the principle of reciprocity at its core. In every meeting I have with a foreign dignitary, we talk about how we can increase economic and commercial ties.

I can't tell you how they light up when I say this. They come in, and I say, 'In the Trump administration, we are putting this at the forefront of commercial diplomacy.' And they say, 'Where have you been, my friend?' I'm delighted to hear that. We have not seen American companies show up in our countries.

Frankly, this is one of the riddles I am trying to solve in my current position. We have such a dynamic private sector, and there are so many great opportunities abroad where people can make money. Nobody's asking people to go abroad to lose money, right? But there are opportunities around the world that offer lucrative commercial opportunities. Why are American companies not out there knocking on all the doors in far-flung places in the world like Mozambique, Paraguay, and Malaysia? Why are the Chinese always two or three steps ahead of us? I've really been wondering about this.

Where I am in my own mind is that we have been blessed in the United States for a very long time with such a large internal market that Americans, I think, have gotten somewhat lazy or contented, thinking, 'Well, we just satisfy our own market, and opportunities abroad present too much risk.' There's too much unknown, like the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) and all kinds of other scary things. We want to ensure in the Trump administration that we tear down any of those barriers, and we want to be the connective tissue that unites the dynamic American private sector with opportunities abroad.

That again, I think this can be a win-win situation that provides a lucrative opportunity for an American company and great opportunities for countries abroad. Frankly, there are collateral benefits for the United States in terms of having an American presence abroad instead of a Chinese presence abroad. But the problem in a lot of parts of the world isn't just that China is beating us; it's that we're not even there to compete with China. That has to change, and I think the Department of State has a critical role in that.

I'm sure lots of you in this room have ideas, and let me just say, I am very open to ideas. I do not come into this job thinking that I know it all and have all the answers. I come in with a sense of humility and a willingness to learn. I have a profound conviction that this is an important issue and one where I would like to make a difference. I would love to get guidance from many of you in this room who have been dealing with these issues for a long time and may have a much better sense than I do about what the United States government has not been doing as effectively as it could.

Countries that want to do business with or in the United States will find open doors, a thriving workforce, and little red tape. I see huge opportunities for growth in countries that have too often been forgotten, such as Mozambique and Guyana, particularly in the Western Hemisphere, where I grew up and have spent much of my life, as well as in the African continent. I think it's important to send a message, which I want to send to you again here today in my first address as the Deputy Secretary of State: The United States is once again open for business.

Our ongoing collaboration with EXIM represents a major component of U.S. commercial diplomacy. EXIM utilizes one of our greatest comparative advantages—our financial services and capital markets—to connect foreign trading partners with American exporters. The outcome: more business for American companies, more American jobs, and advanced products for our trading partners. That is the kind of win-win situation that really should be at the heart of our foreign policy.

I want to highlight a recent example. I think there's a speaker later today from Guyana. The recent EXIM financing deal in Guyana to me stands out as a great example of this kind of win-win paradigm.

Guyana is one of the fastest-growing economies in the world, thanks to its expanding offshore crude oil production, which is operated by ExxonMobil. As Guyana looked to enhance its electrical capacity, the State Department, both in Washington and at Embassy Georgetown, worked hand-in-hand for two years with EXIM and the Commerce Department to finalize a half billion-dollar loan to the government to support its Gas-to-Energy project. This deal is a game-changer for both America and Guyana – supporting over 1,500 American jobs and doubling Guyana’s electrical capacity. 

It would not have been possible without close coordination between the Department of State and the input from our embassies, who worked on the ground to get the deal done. But I do believe we can do more, and I want to push the Department to harness our embassies and ambassadors to work with the private sector, both at home and abroad.

One of the innovations that I've started is meeting with every outgoing United States ambassador before he or she leaves for Post to go over the top three objectives. If one of those objectives is not economic and commercial, they are going to come back for a second round to discuss with me how we will have one of those top three objectives that has to be economic and commercial. This is something that has cascading effects when the ambassador arrives in the country, and I've told this to the outgoing ambassadors.

Having been an outgoing ambassador myself not too long ago, I realized that there was a vacuum here in terms of leadership and direction from Washington. If the ambassador understands that these economic and commercial activities are at the very forefront, I want them to raise this with the head of state to whom they present their credentials and say they are excited about these economic and commercial activities. I want them to present that to their country team at the embassy and say, 'This is how we define success as a mission,’ and the Deputy Secretary of State will be calling me in six months to see how we're stacking up on the goals we set, and if I don't have the facts and figures to show what we're doing, I’m going to be in trouble.

I have a sheet that we are preparing for every country to which that person is going that lists U.S. exports to the country, U.S. imports from the country, other countries' exports, and what other markets we might be able to take advantage of. And these are things outgoing ambassadors need to know as they go to the country. We are not sending people out just to attend cocktail parties and have champagne and caviar. We are sending them out for an important mission, which is to make our country safer, stronger, and more prosperous. I just can't hammer that point home enough, and I think frankly, many people have embraced that.

I hope this will be a lasting realignment in terms of the goals of U.S. foreign policy are, so that economic and commercial matters are no longer relegated to second-class status within the pantheon of American diplomatic goals. In fact, when I met with all the divisions, the regional divisions, I asked them what our relations with Europe are, Africa, and the Western Hemisphere. I always ask economic questions, like how we are doing on trade in these things. And they were not used to that, they are like, 'Well, that's kind of the economic department.' You can't separate that. You can't talk about our relationship with any region or country without understanding what the economic foundations are.

Let me turn to China and critical minerals, which is a very big deal as everybody knows. This is not a secret that the United States currently relies far too heavily on China for mining, processing, and refining critical minerals, leaving U.S. industries vulnerable to supply chain disruptions and economic coercion that pose risks to our economic and national security. It was widely reported a few months ago, China announced an export ban on certain critical minerals, gallium, germanium, and antimony, and great export controls on many other critical minerals.

EXIM’s new Supply Chain Resiliency Initiative (SCRI) is designed to combat this issue by securing critical minerals for U.S. businesses, and ensuring China can’t weaponize critical mineral supply chains – against the United States or any other country. This is vital to both our economic and security interests. I am proud to say the SCRI was born, in part, out of a letter from then-Senator Rubio, asking EXIM to engage meaningfully in the critical mineral space. By helping American businesses to diversify our supply chains, we can ensure that countries are not constrained by a single supplier who can turn the taps off.

As Deputy Secretary, I am committed and let me reaffirm this here to you today, that the Department of State will play a critical role in ensuring that EXIM investments are closely aligned with the foreign policy and national security objectives of the Trump administration. Together we can put commercial diplomacy back at the forefront of American foreign policy. Thank you.