Casey Mace, U.S. Senior Official to Asia-Pacific Economic ForumBureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs

Asia Pacific Media Hub

MODERATOR:  Greetings from the U.S. Department of State’s Asia Pacific Media Hub.  It’s my pleasure to welcome journalists to today’s on-the-record briefing.  Today we are honored to be joined by Casey Mace, U.S. Senior Official to APEC, who will discuss the outcomes of the first APEC 2026 Senior Officials’ Meeting in Guangzhou and U.S. efforts to work through APEC to open Asian markets to American exports and continue to promote deregulation and U.S.-friendly business policies.

Okay, with that, let’s get started.  Senior Official Mace, once again, it’s a pleasure to have you with us, and I’ll turn it over to you for your opening remarks.

MR MACE:  Good, thanks very much, Young Lee, and thanks to all the journalists that have joined the call.  It’s my pleasure to share with you a little bit about the United States approach to APEC and our agenda for the year ahead.

To start, I’d like to say just that the United States really views APEC as the premier platform for the United States to advance U.S.-business-friendly economic policies in the region, which is a really important dimension for President Trump’s highly successful economic agenda for the United States with Asia.  Our – President Trump’s agenda is already reaping enormous economic dividends for the American economy.  To name just a few, the President’s secured commitments for over $18 trillion in new investments; he’s forged new trade agreements or framework agreements with a series of countries in Asia that will lead to more American exports; and the U.S. economy is posting some of the fastest growth in years – the latest GDP growth is over 4 percent.

So the – and a large part of the reason we are seeing these great results for the American economy is because we’re forging strong – continued strong partnerships with our Asia partners, and we do that in part through APEC.

So for the past year and for the year ahead, we’ve been really encouraging and focusing our efforts at APEC on a few different priorities.  One is to promote a fair and balanced trade relationship with our partners in the region, and to work with APEC partners to open their markets up more to American exports.  We’re promoting U.S. exports through APEC, including U.S. tech exports, agricultural exports, energy exports, to name a few.

Last year APEC was successful in issuing a Leaders’ Statement on artificial intelligence and the opportunities that represents for the region, and we played a key role in bringing focus to that issue at the leaders’ level at APEC.  We – and last year we announced a $20 million AI initiative at APEC, which is designed to help accelerate the adoption of AI – American AI technology in the region.

And then finally, we’re working with economies to advance deregulation efforts and just improve the regional business environment in general.

So I just returned from this year’s First Senior Officials’ Meeting that – under China’s host year.  I had the privilege of leading an American delegation of more than 50 U.S. and private sector folks, one of the larger delegations at the senior official meeting, where we started to work with the host and our other APEC partners on the agenda for the year ahead.  We also – it was a very important opportunity for us to lay some groundwork for the kinds of projects that we want to work at the ground level in APEC in the areas that I talked about: promoting U.S. tech, promoting U.S. ag, promoting energy exports, and promoting U.S.-business-friendly economic policies in the region.

So we were very pleased with the success we enjoyed there.  We continue to see positive response to the agenda that we bring to APEC, to the kinds of business practices we’re promoting, and the exports we’re promoting.  And the U.S. private sector continues to be a very important and active partner with us as we engage the other APEC economies.

Why don’t I stop there and invite questions.  Happy to answer questions.

MODERATOR:  Thank you, sir.  Yes, so we will now turn to the Q&A portion of today’s briefing.  Our first question will be – I see Johannes Neudecker is on the line, but he did submit a question in advance, so I will go to Johannes’ question first.  And Johannes Neudecker is from the German Press Agency, based in Beijing, China.  “How do you assess the current situation of general licenses for the export of rare earths from China to the U.S.?  Was that a topic at the meeting, and are general licenses processed accordingly to the agreement that followed the Busan meeting?”

MR MACE:  Yeah, thanks for the question.  And I should – I’ll start by saying I don’t have direct responsibility for the U.S.-China bilateral economic relationship.  But I – but what I can say – so I won’t comment specifically on licenses as it regards China’s issuance for U.S. licenses, but what I can say is that we are committed to reshaping the global critical minerals and rare earths market to make it more diverse, secure, and reliable.  So we’re working with partners to address risks from non-market actors and ensure that we have some supply chain security.  And we’re using a range of diplomatic and economic tools to promote fair and transparent markets that work for everyone.

Critical minerals wasn’t a specific issue in the APEC meetings that I attended in China.  So this wasn’t an issue that we engaged directly at APEC.  But it is high priority for the U.S. Government and something we’re working on with our partners in the region and around the world.

MODERATOR:  Great.  I don’t see any questions in the Q&A box, so I will go to another pre-submitted question from Jaeyeon Moon from Hankookilbo, Seoul, South Korea:  “United States promoted ‘Data Free Flow with Trust’ during the APEC.  Does the U.S. view Korea’s Coupang probe as a breach of CBPR standards?  Why should data flow freely when 80 percent of users’ data weren’t being protected, according to Korean Government findings?”

MR MACE:  Well, I’ll start by saying that we believe strongly that the ability for data to flow freely across borders is crucial to enabling digital trade and technological developments and innovation.  The United States strongly supports the CBPR system as a privacy certification, and there is a – there’s an extensive regime that oversees that CBPR system.  Accountability agents review and administer it, and they undergo themselves review and approval by all the governments that participate in the CBPR system.

It’s true that the CBR system can’t guarantee that a company will never experience a data breach, but it’s also true to say that preventing data from flowing across borders won’t guarantee that data breaches won’t occur either.  So it is – it’s – it is our belief that we need to create a system that allows for the data to flow freely across borders and to use a system that can oversee and provide some accountability.

So we do remain a strong supporter of the Data Free Flows with Trust, and we are working on projects at APEC to promote the CBPR and the regulatory environment that facilitates it.

MODERATOR:  Okay.  Our next question goes to our friend from Papua New Guinea, from The National, Nathan Woti, who also submitted a question:  “Why is U.S. interested in critical minerals in Papua New Guinea waters?”  And number two:  “How much value of critical minerals are in PNG waters?  Would the U.S. choose to forcefully come and extricate those critical minerals in PNG?”

MR MACE:  Well, just generally speaking, because critical minerals wasn’t a subject at the APEC meeting, but I can say, as I said earlier, that the United States has made it a very high priority to diversify and secure our supply chains, and especially in critical minerals.  And so we are working with partners, countries around the world, at opportunities for expanding the supply of the critical minerals themselves, the processing of those critical minerals, and ultimately the manufacturing of finished products.  And different countries have different strengths in that value chain.

I understand that Papua New Guinea has – is resource – naturally resource-rich, and the United States is just – is interested in working with the Papua New Guinea Government on opportunities to invest and potentially mine those critical minerals.  There’s no plans to forcibly do that, though.  It – our policy and our approach is to work with our partners in a cooperative and collaborative way.

MODERATOR:  Thank you, sir.  Next question goes to Eric Martin from Bloomberg:  “I’m interested if he can talk about plans for U.S. participation in the APEC summit later this year, and whether President Trump will be leading that delegation.”

MR MACE:  Yeah, so we – the President hasn’t made any announcements about his travel plans for later in the year as specific plans for participation.  But the President did attend last year’s Leaders’ Week in Korea, which was a strong affirmation of the value that he sees and the United States Government sees in APEC as a platform to promote our America First economic and foreign policy.  And so he’s directed us to engage actively this year in the various meetings and ministerials, and as the year grows closer to the final Leaders’ Week in Beijing, I expect that’s when we’ll be able to make an announcement about his specific participation.

But the United States is strongly committed to APEC.  We are actively participating.  And one of the other signs of our commitment was at the end of last year we announced, in addition to that AI initiative, another $10 million of funding support to the program that we use to fund projects at APEC that promote the business – U.S.-business-friendly practices in the various sectors that APEC is active.

MODERATOR:  Thank you.  I do have a question from an anonymous participant:  “How are you advising the U.S. private sector to engage with APEC during China’s host year?”

MR MACE:  Yeah, so as I said in my opening remarks, the private sector is an important partner for us at APEC.  In fact, one of APEC’s defining features, and one of the things that I think is one of its unique strengths, is the strong private sector component to it.  There is, of course, the CEO Summit that takes place at the end of the year, along with the Leaders’ Summit, and the CEOs and the leaders have an opportunity to engage one another, just as President Trump did at the CEO Summit last year.

But throughout the year and on the margins of the ministerials, there are constantly workshops and policy dialogues that are taking place with government regulators and officials throughout the region that include the private sector, and the American private sector has been one of the chief participants in this over the 30-year history of APEC.

We continue to encourage the U.S. private sector to participate this year as well, just as it has in past years.  We also know, however, that we’re hosting G20 this year in the United States, so we’re encouraging the U.S. private sector to see G20 and APEC both as opportunities to support the administration’s economic agenda and opportunities to promote economic policies that are important to the private sector interests.  We encourage them to look first at opportunities at the G20 and then also at opportunities to engage at APEC, and as the CEO Summit grows closer, just to be aware that any commitments that are made towards China’s host year, U.S. businesses should be looking to do the same, if not larger, commitments to the U.S. G20 host year.

MODERATOR:  Great.  Thank you.  I should say there was a second part to the question, and that is:  “How is the region responding to the U.S. economic agenda?”

MR MACE:  Very positively.  As I mentioned, the U.S. and America First trade and economic policy has been reaping dividends for the American economy, and it’s attracting just number – investment numbers that we haven’t seen in a long time from all over the world, but from Asia as well large amounts of investment pouring into the U.S. economy.  Our Asian partners are appreciating that the U.S. economy represents a really good opportunity to get a return on investment.  It’s one of the easiest places in the world to invest to begin with, very business-friendly investment policies.

So with respect to investment, the region’s responding very positively, but with respect to our efforts to forge and rebalance trade, the region is responding as well.  As I mentioned, we’ve signed or are in the process of signing a series of new trade agreements with the region, and that is leading to more exports for the U.S. economy.  But it’s also showing really that the economies in Asia are benefiting and prospering from this strengthened economic partnership that they have with the United States.

MODERATOR:  Thank you, sir.  Okay, I will keep going down my list of pre-submitted questions.  We have a couple of questions from Qingting Zheng from 21st Century Business Herald, based in Beijing, China.  The first question is:  “At the first APEC Senior Officials’ Meeting this year, what were the key priorities and messages that the United States put forward?  In which areas did you find convergence or alignment with China’s positions and where do differences remain?”

MR MACE:  Well, the – thanks for the question.  The priorities that we put forward is to – that we want to continue to promote a fair and balanced trade relationship between the United States and the Asia Pacific and to focus conversations around trade, on fair and balanced trade.  Very focused on promoting the digital economy and AI and American technology exports, the opportunities that that represents to the region; focused on promoting agricultural exports, energy exports, as I mentioned; the – and to focus the conversation around energy, around affordable and reliable energy.  And I would say that in the areas like energy, there was some convergence with what China has been talking about on energy, also on promoting artificial intelligence.

These are issues that leaders came to consensus on at the end of last year, so the Chinese delegation and President Xi Jinping, our delegation and our President, and the other leaders from the other 19 economies, agreed on a consensus around these issues and the importance of these issues in driving forward prosperity in the region.  And so we’re looking to continue to build on that, the consensus that we achieved last year around these issues of energy and technology, deregulation, and balanced trade, and we’re looking to continue to expand on those during China’s host year.

MODERATOR:  Thank you.  We – I see that we have a live question from Kaya Selby from Radio New Zealand.  Kaya, I will allow you to talk if you can unmute yourself and please pose your question live, please.  Hold on one second.  Let me just get your mute button.  There we go.  You’re good to go.

QUESTION:  Hi, can you hear me?

MODERATOR:  Yes.

QUESTION:  Cool.  My question is about Papua New Guinea on the Financial Action Task Force’s gray list.  I know this was forecast for a long time by a lot of different people, but what will this mean for U.S. trade with Papua New Guinea?  How concerned is the U.S. with this inclusion and – and really just money laundering across the whole Pacific Island region?

MR MACE:  Kaya, thanks – thanks for your question.  I have to confess I don’t handle the Financial Action Task Force issue set, so I don’t have a response to that, but we’re happy to take that back and follow up with an answer.

MODERATOR:  Yes, Kaya, we have your email, so we’ll be sure to follow up on your question.  Thank you for your question.

I did want to loop back to Qingting Zheng’s second question from earlier – again, Qingting Zheng from 21st Century Business Herald, based in Beijing, China.  The second question was: “This year, China is hosting APEC, while the United States will host the G20, like you mentioned.  From Washington’s perspective, does this dual leadership present more opportunities for cooperation with China on the global stage, or do you see it as an arena for strategic competition?”

MR MACE:  We’re viewing it as – we are viewing it as an opportunity for cooperation, and our agenda for both the G20 and APEC have very strong synergy.  The priorities at G20 that the United States is focusing the agenda around is deregulation, it’s energy abundance, and it’s artificial intelligence and promoting technology.  So as you see – can see, those have very strong – a very strong connection to the agenda that we are carrying into APEC, and there’s – the groups are different.  There’s some overlap.  Some of the participants in both APEC – are in both APEC and G20, but G20 offers us to expand and engage other countries and parts of the world.  So we’re looking at it as a real opportunity to drive what we believe is an important agenda for American prosperity both in the Asia Pacific but with the Group of 20 countries around the world.

MODERATOR:  Thank you.  I see that there is a live question from Nathan Woti.  Nathan, I believe we already – we already addressed your pre-submitted question, but I will give you the mike in case you have another question that hasn’t been addressed at the beginning of this recording.  And if your question was already addressed, I would appreciate it if you could give the floor to one of your colleagues in the interest of time.  You have the mike, Nathan.

QUESTION:  Thank you.  Can you hear me from your end?

MODERATOR:  Yes, we can hear you loud and clear.

QUESTION:  Thank you.  Sorry, I couldn’t join the briefing earlier because of my email (inaudible).  But I would appreciate if Mace can probably respond again so that I can have him on record for – for a story tomorrow, and that – if Mace can also elaborate on the critical minerals that are in PNG and what’s in it for the U.S., and also what’s U.S.’s position now that China is sort of having its hand in all of the affairs in Papua New Guinea, and, like, how can PNG benefit from both China and U.S. while protecting its own interests in terms of economy and trade partnerships?  Thank you.

MODERATOR:  Sir, if I may just interject really quickly, Nathan, thank you for your questions.  I will be – we will be sharing the full transcript that addressed the first two parts of your question – the first two parts of your question.  So, Senior Official Mace, if you don’t mind just addressing Nathan’s last question about how can PNG benefit from its relationship with both China and the U.S.; I believe that’s the one that we have not addressed yet.

MR MACE:  Yeah, thanks, Nathan, and I think you’ll find that I did respond to the other parts of your question, so appreciate the questions.  I won’t comment on how you might benefit from your economic relationship with China, but I will say that in an economic relationship with the United States, we bring great transparency and great business practices to investments and companies that we either invest in or that we work with overseas.  We train – we train up the workforces in some of the world-leading labor practices, and we have relationships with – just a deep, deep bench of relationships both in the financial sector but in all sectors that allow us to bring basically the greatest strengths that any business needs to thrive.  And, of course, we offer the largest market for countries that are sending their exports to our market, and the most fluid capital in the world.  So there’s a lot of benefits and strengths to working with the United States.

And on critical minerals, what we are seeking to do is to build a network of partners and a network of supply chains that not just benefit the United States but the partners that are involved in those supply chains, so I think that should Papua New Guinea join us in this effort, that Papua New Guinea would really benefit from it.

MODERATOR:  Thank you, sir.  And unfortunately we are out of time today, so I just wanted to give you the mike one last time for any closing remarks, Senior Official Mace.  I’ll turn it back to you.

MR MACE:  Good.  Well, thanks again to all the journalists that dialed in for this.  APEC is really, as I said at the beginning, a really important platform for the United States and I think for really all the economies in the region to come together to work on ways to expand our economic cooperation so that we’re creating a more prosperous region and we’re bringing prosperity to all of our countries.  We believe that APEC over the years has yielded great prosperity for the United States, and under the America First agenda under President Trump, we see APEC as an important component to continuing to promote U.S. exports, promote more balanced trade, promote technology, energy, agricultural exports to the region.

And I would also add that the United States economy is really outperforming expectations.  It’s a standout right now and I think in the region in terms of our performance as an economy and a really strong destination for foreign investment and a really strong – the opportunities that we present to our partners, our economic partners in the region.  So I’m excited to continue to work through APEC with the large U.S. interagency and with the U.S. private sector to continue to promote the America First trade and economic agenda.  Thank you very much, Young Lee.

MODERATOR:  Thank you, sir.  This concludes the briefing.  Thank you all for joining us.  We will provide a transcript of this briefing to participating journalists as soon as it is available, and if you have any feedback or further questions, please do not hesitate to contact us at AsiaPacMedia@state.gov.  Thanks again for your participation and we hope you can join us for another briefing very soon.  Have a good day or good evening.

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