Interview
Secretary of State
QUESTION: We have Secretary of State Mike Pompeo joining us here on the WMT Morning Show. Secretary, good morning.
SECRETARY POMPEO: Good morning.
QUESTION: How is your morning?
SECRETARY POMPEO: Good morning, sir. It’s great. It’s great to be with you. It’s great to be here in Iowa.
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 negotiations. They can fall apart at the last minute for sure. But President Trump has been determined to get Iowa farmers a fair shake, to stop the Chinese from stealing their intellectual property and denying them the ability to compete by selling products into China. And this effort, this effort to get a full, comprehensive trade deal, is to fix that, to rectify it, to make it fair, to fix this historic wrong, and I am very hopeful in the coming weeks we’ll get that positive outcome.
QUESTION: Now this is something. Of course, you have former Iowa Governor Terry Branstad. He is now the U.S. Ambassador to China. That’s one of those things where we take a look at Iowans – this has been something that’s fairly precarious because the relationship that the governor has had with President Xi over the years has been something that is very positive and obviously one of the reasons the President selected him as ambassador. How does the ambassador’s role play in this along with you as the head of the State Department, the top diplomat?
SECRETARY POMPEO: Ambassador Branstad, former Governor Branstad, has been a huge asset for America, for the people of Iowa. To have him there in China, to be able to communicate each of the things I just described about how we have to have fair and free trade, has been an enormous boon to Iowa. He’s actually with me today. He hasn’t been back in Iowa a whole lot since he’s been serving in Beijing, but he is here with me today. And he and I are going to talk about how it is that the State Department – its role in keeping America safe, to keep Iowans safe, and the things that the State Department does to take care of Iowans. He and I are looking forward to the day here. He has been an invaluable asset for the people of Iowa and the people of America serving our country in China.
QUESTION: Secretary of State Mike Pompeo joining us here on the Newsmaker Line on News Radio 600 WMT. Secretary, one of the things you talked about was intellectual property. There was a situation here in the past couple of years where you had a Chinese national who was arrested for actually taking seed corn and picking up and taking it out of the country, attempting to – if you want to – take that intellectual property in order to pilfer it in order to get behind the scenes. Is that part of what you were talking about with IP? And if not, what else is there?
SECRETARY POMPEO: It is. It’s a part of it. That’s the physical manifestation of it. But it happens far too often in lots of different ways, stolen through cyber theft, taken by forcing a company that wanted to go compete. An Iowa company making farm implements that wanted to go sell in China, they’ll force that company to share that technology with a supplier or with another government-owned enterprise, and then they steal it and use it for their own, copy it. That’s just wrong. Iowans are paying for that. Iowa companies invest in that R&D and in that technology, and they ought not be able to steal it. It’ll ultimately be devastating for Iowans and for Americans if that continues, and President Trump is determined to fix it, to right that specific wrong.
QUESTION: Right. You’re awfully busy today in Iowa. You’re delivering remarks to FFA as well today.
SECRETARY POMPEO: I’m looking forward to it, yeah.
QUESTION: Yeah. The Corteva research facility. On top of that, you’ve got something – talk a little bit in the moments you have remaining about the World Food Prize, and it’s important in the international stage.
SECRETARY POMPEO: So it’s really – it’s really a special prize. The State Department hasn’t participated in it for the last year, hadn’t been done, and I’ll get a chance to do that here just a little bit later this year. That prize, it talks about excellence, and Iowan farmers know that these are true professionals. I think people in – I’m from Kansas. I represented south central Kansas for six years. I think sometimes people think of farmers as simple. These are scientists, technologists, and incredibly hard-working people. And the Food Prize recognizes that. It understands that if we don’t get it right we won’t be able to feed America or the world, and the Food Prize is just a wonderful recognition of excellent work done in this field that truly does make sure that people all across the world have the nourishment and the food that they need.
QUESTION: Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, thank you for your time this morning on the WMT Morning Show.
SECRETARY POMPEO: Thank you very much, sir.
QUESTION: Safe travels through Iowa, sir. Take care.
SECRETARY POMPEO: Thank you. Have a great day.
Published March 04, 2019 at 04:06PM
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