Remarks by Under Secretary of Commerce for International Trade Marisa Lago at Partnership for Transatlantic Energy and Climate Cooperation (P-TECC)

Bucharest, Romania
July 24, 2024

As Delivered

It is such an honor to follow in the footsteps of my valued colleagues from the State Department and the U.S. Trade and Development Agency.

To make a few remarks about the industrial strategy that the U.S. is pursuing: we all saw during the COVID pandemic that no country should rely exclusively on one source - or even one geographic region - for supply chains that are critical to our everyday life.

In the U.S., we're diversifying our supply chains, including in energy, and we're doing this to safeguard our energy security, which we know is an element of our economic security. And we know equally that our economic security is fundamental to our national security.

Now, in particular, we're diversifying key components of advanced technology supply chains to protect our economic security, in light of China's stated intention to leverage supply chain dependencies to threaten and cut off countries during a crisis. And, of course, we've seen what Russia has done to weaponize energy supplies against European countries.

Now, strengthening U.S. energy security starts by investing at home in U.S. competitiveness. We have had three landmark pieces of legislation - the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, the CHIPS and Science Act, and the Inflation Reduction Act - which are making targeted investments totaling over one trillion dollars in U.S. industries and technologies for the future, from clean energy solutions to semiconductors. These historic investments are boosting innovation, they're driving the growth of quality jobs, and they're fueling a clean energy manufacturing boom.

The sheer scale of these investments isn't just good for the United States - they're good for the world. These investments are continuing to position the U.S. as a global leader in technological innovation for the clean energy transition, in addition to strengthening long-term energy security for the U.S. and our partners in Europe and beyond. History shows that innovation that starts in the U.S. does not stay within our borders, and that is healthy.

Now, another benefit is that U.S. breakthroughs are driving down the cost of deploying clean energy solutions around the globe. And these savings mean more clean energy deployment, further cutting emissions and leveraging economies of scale.

The reality is that the world currently faces some short-term overcapacity in certain clean energy supply chains, but we also face a long-term imperative to deploy these technologies. That means that private sector companies may be ill-equipped to make critical investment decisions, since they're often focused on near-term profits.

And that's where economic diplomacy comes in. The U.S. is seeking government-to-government partnerships with countries that recognize the imperative of the clean transition and that are committed to using public tools to fill a near-term investment gap and to mobilize the private sector.

Now, in addition to government-to-government initiatives, the United States believes that close cooperation between the public and private sectors is absolutely critical to advance our shared energy security goals. To accelerate the clean energy transition, we must cultivate strong business environments. That includes clear regulatory regimes. These clear rules of the road will allow the private sector to effectively conduct business in international markets and attract investment.

The private sector provides expertise, substantial capacity to invest in new infrastructure, and the ingenuity and drive to bring new innovations to market. As governments are developing industrial policy, it's critical to work with the private sector to understand supply chain and manufacturing challenges, and to ensure that our proposed policies account for the business realities that companies face daily. The private sector ultimately owns and is responsible for supply chains, but the public sector has an important role when they get snarled - as we saw during the pandemic.

So, across a wide array of activities - from trade missions to senior-level commercial dialogues - the U.S. Department of Commerce is proud to be working with our European partners and the European Commission to deepen public-private engagement that can advance our shared energy security, economic security, and national security goals. Thank you.

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