Digital Press Briefing with Secretary of Commerce, Gina M. Raimondo

MODERATOR:  Greetings from the U.S. Department of State’s Asia Pacific Media Hub.  I would like to welcome journalists to today’s on-the-record briefing with Secretary of Commerce Gina M. Raimondo.  Secretary Raimondo will discuss her trip to the Philippines and Thailand, U.S. economic partnerships in Southeast Asia, and work on the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework for Prosperity or IPEF.  

And with that, let’s get started.  Secretary Raimondo, thanks for joining us.  I’ll turn it over to you for your opening remarks. 

SECRETARY RAIMONDO:  Thank you, and hello to everybody.  Thank you for joining us.  I appreciate this opportunity to speak with so many of you based in the Philippines, Thailand, and throughout the Indo-Pacific.  We have had a really exciting and rewarding four days in Manila and Bangkok.  We came here with a fundamental goal, which was to further strengthen the U.S. partnerships in one of the most economically and strategically important regions of the world, the Indo-Pacific.

As we all know, the Indo-Pacific has some of the most dynamic economies in the world, and our partnerships with these economies is very special.  But the fact is we can’t just talk about these relationships; we need to take action.  We need to show up, and that’s exactly what I’m doing.  

This is a critical time in so far as the U.S. is looking to diversify supply chains, and (inaudible) both the Philippines and Thailand provide a good deal of opportunity to help us do that.  We have shared values.  Both countries have a strong, skilled workforce and young population.  And as I said before, it’s a growing dynamic economy with innovative and entrepreneurial spirit.

I want to start first with the Philippines.  The mission in the Philippines was absolutely critical, and it was an opportunity that I was excited to do.  The President asked me to lead this trade and investment mission on his behalf, because he has been focused on the Indo-Pacific region since day one in office.  As Commerce Secretary, the President also asked me to lead the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework for Prosperity, three out of the four pillars.  And it’s been – I’ve been incredibly engaged in the region throughout that process.  I’ve had numerous interactions with my counterparts leading up to the visit. 

The presidential trade mission that I took to the Philippines was the first-ever trade mission of its kind to the Philippines, presidential trade mission.  We arrived in Manila with 22 leading U.S. companies, from Silicon Valley startups to some of the biggest companies in the world, and we directly connected with members of the Philippine business community and the Philippine Government.  We showed up with more than a billion dollars in investments from this mission alone.  That included announcements from Mastercard, UPS, Ultra Safe Nuclear Corporation, and many others from the U.S. private sector.

I was also pleased to be joined on that mission by the INDOPACOM commander, Admiral Aquilino, whose presence with me underscored that the U.S. has a whole-of-government approach to the Philippines and that – the strength of both our national and our economic security relationship with the Philippines.  As he and I said, economic security is national security.  

While there, I also had productive conversations with President Marcos, who was extremely gracious with his time, and Secretaries Go and Pascual.  I also had engaging meetings with female business leaders and labor leaders and had the incredible opportunity to participate in some very meaningful cultural events in Manila.  I think the highlight for me was visiting the Ayala Museum and learning the Tinikling, which is a Philippine traditional dance.  The Philippine people were so warm and welcoming.  I just wish it could have been a longer visit.  

Now, I’m currently in Thailand on a fact-finding mission with the President’s Export Council or the PEC, which is the leading group of CEOs to advise the President on ways to grow exports, two-way trade, and position the U.S. as a global leader across industries.  The PEC is only traveling on one mission this year, and they chose Thailand, thus underscoring the potential that our U.S. business community sees in Thailand to expand our commercial presence.  

This trip is an incredible opportunity for us to listen, learn, and gain insight as to what we can be doing with our Thai partners to find commonalities on some of the most pressing economic issues facing both of our countries.  So far while I’ve been here, we’ve had productive engagements with my Thai counterpart, the deputy prime minister, and commerce minister.  Later today I’ll be meeting with deputy prime minister and foreign affairs minister, and I’ll be sitting down with the prime minister.  

All of these meetings will include sessions with our full PEC delegation.  I’m also looking forward to meeting with leaders in the semiconductor industry that have a presence here in Thailand.  In addition, and very importantly, I look forward to our IPEF ministerial meeting, which will be a hybrid virtual and in-person meeting with our partners throughout the region.  

Now, I’m going to pause here, because this is an important piece of what we’re doing in Thailand.  This is the first time we’ve all met since we signed the supply chain agreement in November at APEC in San Francisco, where we also concluded negotiations of the clean economy and fair economy pillars of the IPEF.  

Again, I’d like to emphasize the progress we’re talking about here.  These are significant strides.  It’s important to remember that two years ago this framework didn’t even exist, and today we have over a dozen nations throughout the Indo-Pacific at the table working with the U.S. to address our shared goals and challenges to bolster our economies.  In record time, we’ve established these government-to-government frameworks for how we’ll deepen economic and commercial cooperation in the region.  

IPEF provides a new set of tools for governments and businesses to tackle the most pressing issues that businesses are facing today.  There are areas that – these are areas that will impact businesses every day, such as strengthening supply chains, removing barriers to investments, building infrastructure, and increasing transparency and predictability.  

Next, we’re going to move into the next phase of this framework, which is implementation.  We need to put the framework to work, and I’m looking forward to meeting with my IPEF counterparts later today to lay out a work plan for 2024 and discuss specific, concrete ways to bring in private sector partners into the frameworks.  

As you can see, it’s been an action-packed four days, and we’re not done yet.  As I said in one of my meetings, I’d summarize my trip to the Philippines and Thailand in two words: trust and opportunity.  We’ve strengthened our relationships and identified important opportunities.  And as we wrap up the trip, we’ve accomplished so much, and we have homework that we’re going to get to work on, so that we can keep the momentum going and move towards concrete deliverables in investments in the region.  There’s a great deal to discuss.  

And with that, I’m happy to take a few questions.  

MODERATOR:  Thank you so much, Secretary Raimondo.  We’ll now turn to the Q&A portion of today’s briefing.  Our first question goes to Kanokwan Kerdplanant from Krungthepturakij in Bangkok, Thailand who asks: “How can Thailand engage with the U.S. under the U.S. CHIPS and Science Act?  What should we do more for this?”  

SECRETARY RAIMONDO:  Thank you.  The prime minister of Thailand has made the semiconductor industry a priority and has a strategy for building the semiconductor industry in Thailand.  I – in the U.S., we are making investments – more than $50 billion – into the semiconductor industry, which will massively increase semiconductor manufacturing in the U.S.  And that will result in many more opportunities for the semiconductor supply chain in Thailand and other countries in the Indo-Pacific.  Thailand already has a strong presence of more than 10 semiconductor testing facilities, testing and packaging facilities, in the country.  And I think that with the investment that the U.S. is making to expand the industry, Thailand is well positioned to get its fair share of increased growth in the industry by growing other parts of the supply chain in Thailand.  

MODERATOR:  Thank you.  Our next question came to us in advance from Napat Kongsawad of The Nation in Bangkok, Thailand, who asks:  “How do you view Thailand as a connecting market as global supply chains diversify?  Thailand is making steps to modernize its industry.  What obstacles do American companies face as they consider investment in Thailand?”

SECRETARY RAIMONDO:  Thank you.  As you say, Thailand is strategically located in the Indo-Pacific and has a long commercial relationship with the United States.  U.S. companies are increasingly looking to diversify their supply chains, and they find Thailand to be an excellent place to consider as they are diversifying their supply chains.  One of the pillars of the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework, IPEF, is the supply chain pillar, and we believe there’ll be many opportunities.  Thailand is a member of the IPEF; they’ve signed on to the supply chain pillar.  And U.S. industry will look favorably upon Thailand as they continue to diversify their supply chains.  

I’m here in the country now with nine CEOs, nine U.S. CEOs, from the President’s Export Council with me.  They’re on a fact-finding mission, and they are focused on supply chain diversity and supply chain opportunities in Thailand.

MODERATOR:  Our next question came to us from the Q&A tab from John Victor Ordoñez at Business World in the Philippines.  John Victor asks:  “How do you ensure that the $1 billion in investment pledges made by U.S. companies to the Philippines will materialize?  What can the Marcos government do to make it easier for these U.S. companies to fulfill their pledges?”

SECRETARY RAIMONDO:  Thank you.  So we – as you said, in the Philippines we announced more than a billion dollars of U.S. investments.  Some of those investments have – are already underway, and other – the rest of them will be underway shortly.  These U.S. companies are committed.  They have signed agreements to move forward with the investments, including the creation of educational and career opportunities for Filipinos.  In fact, we estimate that over 30 million Filipinos will be trained with digital skills because of the investments that we announced.  

So what I can tell you is that these are some of America’s biggest, most successful companies – Google, MasterCard, Microsoft, Visa, United Airlines.  They are deeply committed to making these investments.  And President Marcos was clear with us and has been clear in his actions that he is very forward-leaning towards the United States.  He also is very committed to making the necessary changes in the regulatory structure, cutting red tape, being against corruption, being a transparent government.  All of these things are steps in the right direction, which will make the Philippines an even more attractive place to do business for American companies.

MODERATOR:  Okay.  Well, unfortunately that’s all the time we have for today.  Thank you so much for your questions, and thanks to Secretary Raimondo for joining us during this very busy trip.  We will provide a transcript of this briefing to participating journalists as soon as it is available.  We’d also love to hear your feedback, and you can contact us at any time at AsiaPACMedia@state.gov.  Thanks again for your participation, and we hope you can join us for another briefing soon.