An hour. Greetings i am mark kennedy, policy fellow at the wilson sanity center. Foreign policy can only be effective if it has the support of citizens across the states. There is sometimes i do link between National Foreign policy the interest of the states or understanding of the state level. In order to better understand how Foreign Policy of the u. S. Is viewed from the states, we are very thrilled to welcome governor hutchinson to begin a conversation on the view of the states which we hope will be a series for both sides of the aisle at the Wilson Center. Evan or hutchinson brings a wealth of experience to this topic. He is finishing his second term as of governor in arkansas. He brings the experience of having been a u. S. Attorney, u. S. Congressman, administrator of the drug josh Drug Enforcement agency and and the first secretary of border and transportation at the homeland security. To give us understanding how effective he has been, he won his reelection with 65 of the vote in arkansas. Which is the highest level vote for a governor and the states history. A wonderful honor to have him. My book is that the Wilson Center is on strategic competition with our International Power arrivals. I am joined by lauren who is focus on environmental change and how it in tax security be true. Between the two of us i hope we have a conversation that covers a range of issues in foreign. At the end of that will turn it over to the audience and online. For questions. I will turn it over to mourn for our first question. Lauren thank you mark, and welcome governor hutchinson. We are delighted to have you here. When mark told me about this, i thought it was a wonderful idea. I am from california. When i go home d. C. Feels far away. Having these dynamic conversations with our state leaders on how foreignpolicy connects to state interests is important an important conversation. Thank you for being first. I will start with something we are aware of. Which is russias were in ukraine. We have seen how the war had underscored how Energy Systems and food systems are interconnected across the globe. You see the rippling effects of the crisis in ukraine on food security, energy security, whether it is europe, u. S. Or east africa. From arkansass perspective, what if any has been the effect of the war on arkansas. How do you view arkansass will and actual and responding to the crisis . Governor hutchinson thank you, and i am honored to be here at the Wilson Center. I am grateful for this opportunity to talk about trade, Foreign Policy, and the relationship of the states and if you look at arkansas. We are a state of entrepreneurs, we are estate or producers. We depend on the Global Market and arkansas produces almost half the rice the of the United States. We produced more than we consume. We produce, and depend upon Global Markets. Whether it is brazil or europe or whether it is asia. That is true in reference to the impact of the war in ukraine. I go back to the days long ago which jimmy carter imposed the grain in barker. It seems like the tides are turning back in the same direction we have not imposed the grain and borrow embargo but it was significant news that russia decided not to continue the blockade of grain coming out of ukraine. Which was a huge reversal of it is good news for the global food market, and to that impacts arkansas. In impacts arkansas in terms of prices of commodities commodities we produce. We produce soybeans, and we produce all kinds of grains and commodities that will be sold across the globe. Secondly, its impact is in terms of input cost. Whenever we have economic sanctions on russia, it results in higher fertilizer costs that goes into our agricultural product docs products. The difficulty of getting inputs into our Agricultural Commodities have been a challenge for us. The supply chain has been challenging. I and speaking of agricultural, but this crosses the board. Every bit of inflation we have, starting with the inflationary cost of energy and gas really to me goes back to the change in Energy Policy of this administration. That was compounded by the war in ukraine. So all of the that has escalated to increased energy costs across the country. It also had a devastating impact on our supply chains. It hurt us in all the costs across the board because the delivery of ghost goods depends on energy to transmit those goods across the country. It had that impact, notwithstanding. Arkansas is very supportive of those try to protect their sovereign territory in ukraine. We might talk about in terms of air defense products. In arkansas we have raytheon and rocketdyne and lockheed martin. Lockheed martin makes the high mars. Cbs did a great story of how a small town in arkansas is helping to change the war in ukraine. And to the pounds of balance of power. That is because of the high mars, which is the mobile artillery rockets produced in arkansas by the Defense Industry. It is helping fight the war in ukraine. There is a lot of connections there. I believe we need to have a Winning Strategy. I am talking about a Winning Strategy of ukraine. We support, and i think we have that broad support for continued continue support for ukraine in our state and across middle america. Governor hutchinson lauren mark of you mention trade, you could argue that one out of every two acres of rice is exported. That is grown in arkansas. At some of the other products to, whether it would be the poultry, graders, organic chemicals, steel, a lot of stuff is exported. Trade is not always well understood. People do not often times see the job supported by exports. Or the lower cost that consumers receive by expanded trade. But are focused on those that hurt. Is it well understood within arkansas and how we have it be better understood . What is the benefits and challenges of trade . Governor hutchinson the benefits are normas. If we shut off trade are normas. If we shut off trade or reduced trade we will be losing jobs in arkansas. We have 350 thousand jobs that are dependent upon global trade. That is agriculture and manufacturing. We have 15 billion of Economic Activity in trade. Much of it is mexico and canada is our two leading trading partners. We also have mark, the falcon jet. If you buy a falcon jet anywhere in the world, you fly to arkansas to pick it up. It is one of those breaking points as a state. It is because they do the final assembly there. And that is trade. It is our error defense and industry that aero Defense Industry that excels in arkansas and a leading manufacturer and export commodity for us. We also have walmart, and tysons the export protein. Tyson exports protein. There dependent on upon a Global Market. When you go down the list. I do not believe arkansas is unique. I believe every state can point to the same type of trade and importance of jobs created. Your question about the people do people understand the relationship between jobs and wellbeing in our state and the importance of global trade. Sure, there is a differing opinion on that. I believe there is a broad understanding of it. These are the difficult decisions. I remember when i was in congress. We debated it was after they did nafta. We are looking at most favored nation trading status with china. I supported that. We passed that in congress. We opened up and increased trade. It was divided in arkansas. You had those that understood that trade in the importance to arkansas and opening up that market. Then you had others that with fierce independence and believe that it is the wrong direction for our country. There is a divided viewpoint that is still divided. Probably more so in reference to china. We can talk more about that more. Arkansas, you look back at our state. We have j woww fulbright. Founder of the fulbright scholars. That is international. When i go to asia, i can talk about arkansas connection to fulbright. They get that. We had that connection. It takes every generation and leader to reinforce the connection between our rural states, global trade, and the importance of job creation and Economic Activity. Lauren thinking sort of the flipside of that, which is your job is to govern the state and ensure that what the u. S. Federal level is doing to affect the state. When you think about federal trade policy and how that can be improved for arkansas. And what steps the federal government can do to so thinkinp of that which is your job is to govern the state and ensure sort of thinking about what the u. S. Federal is going to benefit so when you think about the federal trade policy and how that can be improved in regards to the arkansas people and what steps the federal government can do to strengthen trade policy for arkansas. To reduce the repression of freedom, to open up their markets and a more Free Enterprise way. As i went there, they are hardcore communists. It is more difficult than dealing with china in terms of centralized control. There is still true believers, thats what they preach in cuba for their spirit of communism and it is somewhat startling. At the same time, we were able to sell some chicken down there that they desperately needed. You go into the food markets in cuba and theyve got beef case, protein cases are empty or they have it from brazil. I dont know, i dont believe that food. To be used as a tool in Foreign Policy. Right now food should be used as a tool in Foreign Policy. Right now, i think we need to open it up to credit transactions when it comes to Food Products that would go to crude go to cuba and to me that makes sense for agricultural producers. Is not going to tip the balance of the regine it is not going to tip the balance of the regime. Competition with brazil and other countries. Why should cuba have to buy from vietnam . Why cant it buy from United States . Its not going to strengthen the regime that is there, which we all want to see brought down. There is no question that there is a tradeoff. Also balanced by the consumer benefits. You are right. If we had more people focused on exporting all the time, i know having a history in minnesota. Minnesota farmers know what the zillow Weather Report is that day. You mentioned walmarts. Walmart is also the largest retailer in mexico. Very significant operations in china and india. As i drive through arkansas, i have to believe that some of that, some of the jobs they are, some of the prosperity we are seeing is due to the fact that you have a Global Business that is not just engaging in trade, but very actively involved in other parts of the world. What are the benefits of having these Global Companies . How do they bring get to arkansas . Thats extraordinary. You have walmarts, tysons. Both Global Companies. You have murphy that doesnt global exploring for oil reserves. But if you look at northwest arkansas and you ask about the benefit, walmart has been extraordinary not just as a company, but also the Walton Family of entrepreneurs is made a big difference in our state. They invest. They and they created the world class american arts museum. It is one of the Fastest Growing regions of our country. They believe in recruiting talent because you have a workforce that is continuing to grow. They want to improve the quality of life for everybody in northwest arkansas so we can recruit that talent. Thats why we have worldclass hiking tales hiking trails. We have the Downtown Living that attracts the millennials. On and on you can go, that they have made a difference in terms of their investment and its because they know they need to grow and theyve got to recruit talent. The same is true for tysons. These generate wealth, but they also generate philanthropy that makes an extraordinary difference. Im very proud of that partnership with them, and whenever you look at walmart, for example, they are building up new International Headquarters. As they build that, they made the decision that they wanted to make it out of clt, cross laminated timber. Its going to require so much cross laminated timber to build the new International Headquarters that they actually had to recruit out of canada to put a new facility in conway that can produce that quantity of clt. And guess what . They are using arkansas timber which we produce and we grow more timber every year that we harvest. Just an example of where there is a cross benefit from a glowing growing Global Company. Thinking about the sheer size of walmart. Gdpr par with a lot of small countries. Are there challenges to being a host to such a Large Company . I knew you were going to get to that question. First of all, the benefits, by every measurement, outweighs every challenge. Its extraordinary to be able to have them in arkansas. In terms of challenges, theres always some conflict between a Global Company that supports a Diverse Workforce and the needs that they have versus some in the legislature that wants to slow down the change in culture and communities. You have some conflict of that fashion. Let me come back to china because i mentioned that i support when support. We did that based on two principles. One, that china would be able to follow the rule of law and the International Rules and governing trade and responsibility of nations that come into the Global Marketplace. Youve got to follow the rules. Entry into the World Trade Center and participation in that was part of it. The second was that by increasing trade, that china would naturally enhance freedoms and other areas. You cannot have entrepreneurship standing alone in terms of freedom, Economic Freedom generates other types of freedom. China has disappointed us. They have not followed the rule of law. They have not followed the International Rules in terms of trade and enforcement and not stealing intellectual property. They have become actually just as repressive of not more repressive in terms of hong kong, in terms of human rights and other freedoms in that country. That is somewhat of a conflict with the fact that we have our Largest Company that has massive investments in china. And not just a company, but all the consumers are depending upon that supply chain that comes from china. So it will take us six years if we moved supply chain of our consumers away from china. It takes that long to move. But i support and believe that we need to have a supply chain that is not china centric. Is that conflict . I dont know. I think its a relic i think its a reality for america. When it comes to our semiconductors and technical industries, but at some point we are going to have to continue to move our manufacturing supply chain overall to more friendly venues that will be a better partner with us. That will certainly be a challenge in the years ahead. We talked about trait aspects but theres also the youve already mentioned and governors are often trying to attract, you just mentioned canada. We have an increased focused focus on scrutinizing that. Having expended expanded agenda, looking at as a governor trying to attract versus the federal government putting on these scrutinys. Where do we get the right balance russian mark balance . Over 500 Global Companies have operations in arkansas and we are relatively small state of 3 million plus people. Over 40 7000 workers and 60 of those workers are in manufacturing. You mentioned the falcon 47,000 workers and 60 of those workers are in manufacturing. It german companies, we have japanese that was recruited during the Clinton Administration. The Clinton Administration when he was governor of arkansas. So Foreign Direct Investment is very important for our state and i have concentrated on it. My first trips as governor, and ive taken is many foreign trip taken as many trips. That was probably one of the regrets that i have at regrets that i have. At that time, it made sense. But then subsequent to the eight obama administration, we had the Trump Administration they got into a trade war with to the obama administration, we had the amid we had the trumpet ministration to get into a trade war. Investments never came to fruition Trump Administration to get into a trade war. Investments never came to fruition. And increasingly good relations with the United States. As we had the Foreign Direct Investment, sure, we need to inspect it and we need to make sure that we have some protections against foreign control that impacts our National Security interests. We have a process for that. Do you want me to talk about this more . [laughter] so, its really a timely question because we just had elon musk that just acquired twitter, converted it to a private company. At believe i saw senator chris murphy that filed a letter with the committee for Foreign Investment to United States. It is a group that reviews our National Security interests and i think it is an appropriate letter that asked for a review because it had 1 billion plus investment of an existing shareholder of a publicly traded Company Twitter that is from saudi arabia, a leader in saudi arabia. So now that is converted into a private company, but less than 5 ownership. One of the cases that synergy senator murphy made was twitter has sensitive personal information on people. What is the criteria for the review . Does it impact our National Security interest . Is that a risk to compromising personal data on our citizens . I think it is a easy solution. Its not a majority control. It is a minor investor in the company, even though it is a lot of money. Ultimately, i think they will set some protections to make sure they dont have access or decisionmaking or authority over that. In the investment the investment is made not always by a foreign country, by but by private Sector Enterprises that are coming in. When you look at offense when you look at investments from the u. K. , you are looking at investments from germany. There are Different Levels of review. It is important to have those. I think the system is working fairly well. You dont want to strangle Foreign Investment. Just want to make sure that there are rights standards in place to review. If you are acquiring land. You cant acquire land by foreign entity that is close to military installation or if its a position of collecting intelligence information may be by research institution. These are appropriate concerns and im glad it is being reviewed, but hopefully it will not detract from the exchange that we had with our foreign competitors. What we talk about opening our market, will we want access to their market for trade, they want access to our market. It is a giveandtake. If we are soliciting Foreign Direct Investments, and we start cutting that off, we are going to get cut off to from our Companies Investing in their countries. So we have to be fair about it but at the same time protect our national investments. As the director, my take on Climate Change is the context in which all of these things are happening. Interacting with trade and economies and peoples mobility and movement and resources across the board. I wonder if you could share some of the key changes when it comes to Climate Change and the strategies that the state is incorporating in order to be proactive in addressing that. s first of all, we are engaged in the diversity of Energy Sources, reducing our Carbon Footprint and, i havent mentioned it, but ive got to do an advertisement first. The Steel Industry has been big in arkansas also we have japanese investment, Big River Steel with the u. S. Investment that produced a credible state of the art steel meal in the mississippi river. We competed with other states. We won the competition United States steel. They dish we won the competition. It will we won the competition. Extraordinary win for the state. Arkansas will passed into vania as the number one steel producing state in the nation. It was a very important aspect of the transaction and commitment of the state, for the Energy Sources. They wanted to have very strong mix and we find this is true with any new investments, people want to look at the sustainability part of it. The energy mix is critically important in our competitive environment. I mentioned loreal. They are looking for more biofuels, more alternative Energy Sources because of the European Commission rules that require them to move quickly. Its naturally happening as well as happening as a result in result of Foreign Investments. Arkansas solar energy, we have nuclear energy. We have hydro power as well. We have traditional coal, but most of the companies are switching to gas which still has a footprint. But there is a gradual shift in making sure that we can have diverse Energy Sources in our state. In terms of where we are as a nation, i think we will continue down the path of carbon reduction and making sure that we can guard against Climate Change and do our share of this responsibility. What has happened is, from the war in ukraine is a wakeup call to the United States and we cannot so so far overboard into dramatic changes in our Energy Production that jeopardizes our security now. Not only do we need to be Energy Independent and the United States of america, we have to produce enough energy for ourselves. We need to produce energy for our allies so they dont have to rely on russia. We dont have to go to venezuela and saudi arabia. If anything has been pressed into the minds of americans today is we got to reduce energy and, sure, we want to have diverse Energy Sources in arkansas. We are doing what many states are doing. Having electric charging stations. We are investing in that across the state. Electrical vehicle facility in arkansas. I have a council on future mobility, transportation and delivery of goods, electric vehicles, drone delivery, automation. All of that is affecting the supply chain, but it is also being sensitive to our Environmental Issues at the same time. What more should we do . Im asking you a question now. We do want to get to the audience questions. We will turn it over to the audience, but we want to make sure that we talk about the military impact on the state of arkansas. You the head of the National Guard so you get a sense how we do modernization. One interesting thing happening in arkansas is the possibility of being able to do training for singapore and perhaps other countries. Maybe you can talk about how you see the military from the perspective of a governor. First, the National Guard is critical to keeping our citizens safe in the state. I depend upon the National Guard. We have a good federal and state partnership in terms of the role that they play. They could be mobilized for federal purposes. They have served in iraq. They have served across the globe. They have trained and available for federal service. In the meantime, we have an ice storm or flooding and i call upon the National Guard to be of assistance. I sent them to enhance Border Security in partnership with governor abbott. Its the role of the states needs to be preserved and partnership of federal government needs to the main balanced. In terms of the overall military structure, one of the things that i did as governor was i created a council on our military installations. It was designed to support our military installation. Theyve made a big difference for us. One of the result is for smith air force base, they are in a winning position for f35 Training Foreign pilots. Singapore looked at arkansas, looked at other states. They chose fort smith. They are going through the appropriation process now. We had something happen in europe, which was of course russia invading ukraine and all of a sudden i met with the joy that german ambassador and they are requiring f35 and they need a training site and yes, they liked the air force base in fort smith. So it looks like this could come to fruition. We will have singapore and also germany. It is a dramatic change. Germany demilitarized after world war ii and President Trump are trying to get europe to engage in supporting their own defense structure there. All of a sudden, they are doing it and doing it at lightning speed. This is a good thing, not that ukraine has frets from russia but taking responsibility of their own security and we can be a part of it. We look at the impact of global trade. The investment in our training is an important part of it for our allies. It gives us good training experiences. It helps us put the investments overseas, helps keep america safe as well. Finally, ive got to say when it comes to military that the supply impacts them as well. Whenever you look at the numbers that decreased the decrease in our navy ships, we look at how we need to modernize our fleets and weaponry, we cant be depended upon foreign sources in that manufacturing. Weve got to make sure that we continue to invest in a modern military that is applicable to a postwar, postcold war environment. Its going to take continued investment as well as investment in that supply chain. Do you want to go to the audience for questions . Ok. Yeah. One of the, some of our colleagues have done some research on immigration from the islands and i know with the association, although a lot of the migrants have moved to arkansas. They are very active in the community and have felt a very vibrant diaspora and in many ways are an example of how to do migration well in terms of Building Social ties and social cohesion. They are invested in the poultry industry. Tysons and others. I would like to really hear your view on immigration and the benefits that you see migrants bring to the state and how, what kind of policies and programs could facilitate that mobility so that it benefits both the migrants and the receiving communities. They are incredible people. We have a great relationship with them. It is a unique relationship because they are here as marseillaise. They have free access back to the country. They have a unique legal status here in the country. Its because of what happened, of course, with the Nuclear Experimentation in the islands. A lot of Health Consequences that come with that, but they are a big part of our workforce. A large part of our community. Weve had to make some adjustments. They dont automatically qualify for medicaid so weve had to step up and cover them for that. We were glad to do it and it was necessary. I dont want to diminish it, but its unique arrangement. In a broader sphere of immigration, we should always recognize the importance of immigrants to our country in terms of our workforce diversity, the fabric of america and how they embrace the freedoms that we have. Some might come here for nefarious reasons, but by and large people come to United States of america because they want the freedom we have and thats what makes them great americans. Weve got to get that issue solved, but we just cant diminish the historic relationship that we have with immigrants. We have a very large hispanic population. We have a lot of daca students because of obamas order, some legal steps. They did not have access to the professional degrees so they could not have professional license as nurses or other professions. We went to the legislature and the legislation overwhelmingly said absolutely. These immigrants should have access and i think that was right. I think we have to resolve those issues because they came here when they were very young. They have a legal status. We have to give them the benefit of education and us to have the benefit of working in our states. Longterm, you just have to control the border. Once you do that, you can have another conversation about changes in immigration, policy. But youve got to start giving people confidence with Border Security. And ive had experience when i was under secretary at homeland security. We were not doing as well as we wanted to do and we had one million apprehensions during that year. Today, we are having 2. 2 million. I believe we are right now. It is an extraordinarily expanded problem that we are not