During a House Armed Services Committee hearing prior to the congressional recess, Rep. Derek Tran (D-CA) questioned Katherine Thompson, who is performing the duties of Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs at the Office of the Secretary of Defense, about the effects of President Trump’s foreign tariffs on the U.S. industrial base.
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00:00Chair now recognizes the gentleman from California, Mr. Tran.
00:05Thank you, Mr. Chair.
00:06And I, too, am very saddened by the loss of our soldiers,
00:09and I send my condolences to their family.
00:11General, I salute and thank you for your years of service.
00:15Thank you so much, and appreciate you both being here to testify today.
00:19Tariffs have been in the news a lot lately with President Trump,
00:22leaving tariffs against our allies and adversaries alike.
00:26Like many people, I am deeply concerned about how these attacks will impact our military and diplomatic partnerships
00:31with our closest allies and partners.
00:34Ms. Thompson, with the Trump administration's imposition of tariffs on EU goods,
00:38which I expect could disrupt global supply chains critical to American defense manufacturing,
00:43how is UConn preparing for possible delays for cost increases in defense equipment sourced from Europe?
00:49Thank you for the question, Congressman.
00:51I'll start by saying, and again, I want to say this very respectfully.
00:53I'm not trying to be evasive, it's just the effects of tariffs specifically on the diplomatic relationship side
00:58or on the economic side are a little bit outside of my jurisdiction.
01:02What I would say from the defense perspective is we are acutely focused on making sure
01:06that we can have a strong transatlantic industrial base on both sides of the Atlantic,
01:10which includes reforms on both sides of the Atlantic.
01:12We certainly want the European Union to be open to continuing to partner with the United States
01:17as the defense relationship goes.
01:19And both of us, both the European Union and ourselves, have reforms that we need to make
01:23to ensure that the economic environment in the defense industrial base context
01:27is certainly robust enough that we can make successful investments together.
01:32But you do recognize that these strains will cause an effect on our industrial base, yes?
01:39It's something that we will be looking at and taking into consideration
01:42as we pursue the defense industrial base effort in particular.
01:44General, what measure is UCOM taking to address potential strains in defense collaboration
01:50and ensure joint operational effectiveness?
01:54So we just continue with our exercise programs, we continue with our consultations with our allies,
02:02we continue to work very closely.
02:03UCOM continues to work very closely with NATO, with the Allied Command operations,
02:09and we move forward just in a straight military fashion, sir.
02:15As European nations aim to enhance their defense industries and reduce dependency on U.S. arms,
02:20how does UCOM assess the potential impact on NATO's collective defense posture?
02:25Well, first, we need our allies to rearm in general.
02:32If they rearm with stuff, we want them to rearm with equipment that works with ours.
02:38In many cases, the easiest way to do that is to buy U.S.
02:41So during the course of this conflict, Congressman,
02:45the orders, the value of foreign military sales orders,
02:50that is our allies' orders to buy American equipment,
02:54have increased by 600%.
02:56There right now are 4,000 sales cases worth $265 billion
03:03that European nations are lined up to buy
03:07from the United States as arms manufacturers.
03:11As the Allied Commander, I encourage that, right?
03:14I want more capability and capacity as fast as we can get it.
03:19Have you seen any impacts of the recent tariffs
03:21impacting the 600% increase in those sales?
03:24Sir, I have not.
03:26I have been here for the last week and a half testifying to the Senate and now here.
03:31The deepening strategic partnership among China, Russia, Iran, North Korea
03:36posed an increasing challenge for the United States and its allies in Europe.
03:39I'm particularly concerned by Russian and Chinese economic and military partnership
03:43causing strain on individual European countries within the NATO alliance.
03:47General, how is UCOM working with European partners
03:50to deter or expose CCP efforts to fragment NATO cohesion through strategic investments?
03:57Sure, sir.
03:58The first way is through intel sharing, right?
04:01We have a number of different, we have many, many bilateral intel channels,
04:06but we also have a few lesser-known multilateral intel sharing fora.
04:12And in those, we talk about these things.
04:16The Department of Defense, UCOM, also works closely with our State Department colleagues
04:21and missions throughout the alliance
04:23because they really have the lead in helping our allies avoid malign Chinese investments.
04:31Finally, as I mentioned to a member earlier,
04:34our exercise program specifically uses infrastructure
04:40that we want to be sure of the reliability of.
04:43So we vary what we do and where we do it
04:46so that we're always testing the reliability of our infrastructure.
04:50And when we find a problem, we talk to our host nation about it right away.
04:54Thank you, General.
04:55Thank you, Ms. Thompson.
04:57Chairman, I yield back.
04:58Chairman, I yield back.