The Trump Administration & US - Indo-Pacific Relations

This resource tracked statements, developments, visits, and other interactions in US-Indo-Pacific relations under the President Trump administration. Special focus was given to the comments and activities of President Donald J. Trump; Vice President Mike Pence; United States Trade Representative Ambassador Robert E. Lighthizer; Secretary of State Mike Pompeo; Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross, Jr.; former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson; former Secretary of Defense James Mattis; and former Secretary of Defense Dr. Mark Esper.

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President Trump's Remarks on Military Drills with South Korea

Secretary Pompeo's Interview With Clay Masters of Morning Edition, Iowa Public Radio - China

"QUESTION: So Secretary, I’m curious here just speaking on Chinese trade tariffs and concerns over trade here in Iowa. Iowa State University’s Center for Agricultural Rural Development found overall losses in Iowa’s gross state product are calculated to be at a loss about $1-2 billion. Big hits for the soybean industry, upwards of $891 million. I mean, pretty alarming impacts. Do you think these calculations are correct and do they concern you?

SECRETARY POMPEO: I’m always concerned when an American industry, an important American industry…

United States Will Terminate GSP [Generalized System of Preferences] Designation of India

"At the direction of President Donald J. Trump, U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer announced today that the United States intends to terminate India’s and Turkey’s designations as beneficiary developing countries under the Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) program because they no longer comply with the statutory eligibility criteria.

India’s termination from GSP follows its failure to provide the United States with assurances that it will provide equitable and reasonable access to its markets in numerous sectors. Turkey’s termination from GSP follows a finding that…

Secretary Pompeo's Remarks to the Future Farmers of America - China

"I just came back from Vietnam, from Hanoi, and I also traveled to the Philippines, to Manila, on that trip. Did anybody watch the President in Hanoi working to try and get the nuclear weapons out of North Korea? Did you all see on TV? We made some progress. We didn’t get to where we had hoped to be, and I think there’s a lesson in that. I think there’s a lot more work to do there. But the threat, the threat that’s posed to…

Secretary Pompeo's Interview With Van Harden and Bonnie Lucas of Van and Bonnie in the Morning, WHO Radio - China

MR HARDEN: Wow. You know that second part we’ve had a lot of uncertainty with a lot of the China stuff, and I know that you know when Ambassador Branstad was governor here we used to get to talk to him all the time, but we haven’t really heard – I’m sure he’s been playing a big part of all of this you’re working on.

SECRETARY POMPEO: He has. In fact, he’s back with me today. He’s going to be traveling around with me. In…

Secretary Pompeo's Interview With Sabrina Ahmed of WOI - China

"QUESTION: What is the status of those negotiations? We’ve heard a lot that maybe there might be --

SECRETARY POMPEO: Yeah.

QUESTION: They might be coming to an end sometime this month. (Laughter.)

SECRETARY POMPEO: So I’ve been in a lot of negotiations too. It’s never over till it’s over, but they’ve made a lot of progress, and so I’m very hopeful that in the coming days and weeks, there’ll be a significant announcement. You saw the President make the ask of China – I…

Secretary Pompeo's Interview With Doug Wagner of WMT Morning Show, WMT Radio - China

"QUESTION: Exactly. You’re in Iowa for a number of reasons. You’ve got a very, very full schedule today. Let’s start off by talking about a Wall Street Journal report talking about could be close to a real comprehensive trade deal with China that sort of wraps everything up that we’ve been talking about here in the Midwest in Ag Country for about a year now.

SECRETARY POMPEO: Well I’m very hopeful. Lots of progress has certainly been made. I’ve been involved in a lot of…

Secretary Pompeo's Interview With Scott Thuman of Sinclair Broadcast Group - China

"QUESTION: Let’s start with what the President just said on this. He said: I’ve asked China to immediately remove all tariffs on our agricultural products. This is very important to me and our great farmers. How critical is it that this end?

SECRETARY POMPEO: So the agricultural community is incredibly important to America and incredibly important to American national security. Every country I travel to I talk to them about how we can sell more American goods there, how we can export our crops, our…

Secretary Pompeo's Interview With Peter Zampa of Gray Television - China and North Korea

"QUESTION: Mr. Secretary, you could have picked many places for this agriculture discussion. Why Iowa?

SECRETARY POMPEO: Peter, we decided on Iowa because, first of all, it’s the heartland of American agriculture. I’m from Kansas. That is too. But we chose Iowa because it has such an important element of what we’re trying to do. We can talk about the importance of American technology and agriculture, the importance of American innovation in agriculture, and then I’m going to have Ambassador Branstad, the ambassador – United…