Remarks from Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent at The Economic Club of New York’s America 250 Gala Dinner: American Economic Statecraft in the 21st Century

As prepared for delivery.

Thank you for the invitation to be here on this wonderful occasion.

As a long-time member of the Economic Club of New York, I know that it occupies a place of great significance in our nation’s discourse. For generations, few institutions have done more to shape how we confront the defining questions of the day. And yet, across all those years, tonight’s gathering is without precedent as we assemble on the eve of an extraordinary moment in our history.

Over the coming days, we will celebrate 250 years of the American story and the proposition with which it began: that a free people answer to no power but their own.

But milestones of this magnitude demand more than ceremony.

They ask something of us. They invite us to reflect on the creation of our country, of course, but no less, on its condition.

Indeed, the most fitting way to honor those who founded this nation is to meet the great challenges of our own time with the same resolve that they brought to theirs.

And in that spirit, under President Trump’s leadership, the U.S. Treasury is working to restore economic security as the foundation that allows a nation to fulfill its most basic obligations.

In my remarks before the Economic Club of Dallas, I detailed how the structural vulnerabilities that we allowed to accumulate over time precipitated a drift into dependence.

And last month before the Reagan Library, I noted that under President Trump, America has awoken to the risks we can no longer ignore and is now attuned to the responsibilities we can no longer neglect.

So tonight, I would like to take the next step and describe our strategy for economic statecraft, by which I mean the disciplined use of America’s economic power in service of our sovereignty.

For the better part of a century, the United States was the principal architect and guarantor of an open global economic system that delivered enormous benefits. It raised our allies from the ruins of war, widened the channels of global trade, lifted standards of living, and attained a position of influence that remains unmatched in modern history.

But the success of a system does not absolve us from revisiting its assumptions.

America shaped the postwar order in a world in which our overriding task was to help allies rebuild their economies and defend against the specter of communism. We accepted asymmetries because they served a larger strategic purpose. We opened our market because it helped to create a more prosperous world. And we tolerated imbalances because American economic strength appeared unassailable.

Over time, however, those choices hardened into habits. Habits into assumptions. And assumptions, left unexamined, into vulnerabilities.

We came to believe that access to the American market could be extended without condition—and therefore without consequence. We assumed that closer economic integration would result in a greater convergence of interests. That supply chains would function in every crisis. Low prices would compensate for lost capacity. And above all, that other countries would treat our firms as fairly as we had treated theirs.

Of course, those assumptions failed to materialize. Some slowly, others all at once.

In recent decades, we’ve watched strategic industries migrate abroad; critical supply chains concentrate in jurisdictions that do not share our interests; foreign subsidies, forced technology transfer, discriminatory taxation, and non-market practices distort competition; and American firms grow to global scale, only to become targets of policies designed to constrain or replace them.

Beneath each of those outcomes lay an economic policy that became unmoored from our national strategy.

We’ve emboldened other countries to exploit our dependence as leverage. And to repair those imbalances with the world is not to retreat from it.

On the contrary, it is to engage on terms that make America stronger.

It is to insist on trade that is fair, reciprocal, and consistent with our national interest.

And it is to more closely bind what we should have never allowed to cleave: our economic and national security.

So tonight, guided by these priorities, I want to organize our approach to economic statecraft under President Trump around five core principles.

The first is that economic security begins with national capacity.

We have rediscovered at great cost what Hamilton taught us around the time of our founding: that every nation “ought to endeavor to possess within itself all the essentials of national supply.” That our strength, in other words, is derived from what we can build, for the nation that cannot produce what it needs is not truly secure. The nation that depends on its adversaries for critical inputs is not truly sovereign. And the nation that reduces its economics to consumption is not truly prosperous.

Instead, as Hamilton put it, it is essential to “[enlarge] the sphere of our domestic commerce,” because economic security begins at home. It begins with the capacity to build, invent, finance, and scale the industries that will define the next century, among them semiconductors, AI, quantum computing, advanced manufacturing, shipbuilding, critical minerals, and pharmaceuticals, to name only a few.

More than sectors of the economy, these are the sources of national power. And America must lead in each of them.

In today’s economy, supply chains are the domain in which that leadership is tested.

Yet for years, the question that seemed to consume both our political and commercial class was: Where is the lowest cost? That question still matters, but it is no longer sufficient. We must also ask: Can this supply chain survive a crisis? Can it withstand coercion? Can it continue operating during a pandemic, cyberattack, war, or financial shock? Does it depend on a country that could use economic leverage against us? Does it expose American firms to intellectual property theft? Does it leave our military, hospitals, energy system, or financial system vulnerable?

Of course, supply chain resilience does not require every component to be domestic from beginning to end. That would be unrealistic and unnecessary. But it does compel us to know where our vulnerabilities are and to reduce them before a crisis rears itself. It requires diversifying away from dangerous concentrations. And that we build enough capacity at home to ensure that the American people are never at the mercy of a foreign chokepoint abroad.

The second principle is that America’s openness will be matched by reciprocity, which is the basis of durable cooperation.

No economic relationship can remain healthy if one side opens its market while the other closes its own. No partnership can remain sustainable if American workers and firms are asked to absorb imbalances in the name of harmony. And no open system can survive if that openness is exploited by countries that do not practice it themselves.

The United States remains the best economic partner in the world.

To partner with us is to gain access to the deepest, most dynamic markets; the preeminent role of our dollar; and an ecosystem of innovation that has pushed the boundaries of the possible for two and a half centuries.

Those benefits are substantial. But under President Trump, they are no longer unconditional.

Countries cannot seek access to our market while denying fair access to theirs. They cannot invite American capital while imposing discriminatory taxes and investment obligations aimed at American companies. They cannot benefit from American security while adopting industrial policies that exclude American technology. They cannot ask American firms to invest, hire, and innovate, and then require those firms to localize intellectual property, transfer know-how, or satisfy indigenous innovation requirements designed to favor domestic champions.

And they cannot participate in the dollar-based financial system while serving as conduits for the evasion of sanctions, illicit finance, or strategic leakage.

America welcomes its partners and we are stronger because of them. But our partnership now carries expectations. And, in some instances, non-negotiable obligations.

Of course, we will continue to distinguish legitimate regulation from discrimination. Every sovereign nation has the right to regulate in ways that serve its own public interest. The United States respects that responsibility.

But regulation descends into discrimination when it targets American firms because they are American. Taxation becomes retribution when it is structured to single out American companies. And industrial policy is wielded as a tool of exclusion when it uses local-content rules, forced localization, procurement bias, or indigenous innovation requirements to shut American firms out of fair competition.

These differences are not difficult to discern. And the United States possesses many tools at its disposal to remedy practices that distort trade and undermine reciprocity. We will always seek to use those tools judiciously—but we will never hesitate to use them decisively.

The third principle is that America will write the rules of the next economy.

Of course, unlike much of the last century, the next era of economic competition will not be confined to the movement of goods across oceans and ports. It will be shaped by the platforms, systems, and protocols through which commerce flows in the twenty-first century.

In each of these domains, standards can become strategy, for the nation that fails to help write the rules of the next economy will sooner or later answer to those that did.

If authoritarian or mercantilist systems write those standards for their own advantage, the global economy will become more coercive and less favorable to American interests.

If America and our partners set open, secure, market-based standards, then the twenty-first century economy will tilt toward freedom and prosperity by rewarding innovation, protecting intellectual property, and ensuring that competition is not distorted by discrimination.

That is the system America should champion. And it is the system that our partners have every reason to build together with us.

I think, for example, of the new frontiers in financial technologies.

Digital assets, stablecoins, tokenization, and new payment systems will help to shape the future of money. The United States should not consign itself to the sidelines while that future is built elsewhere.

We should support innovation that strengthens the dollar, improves efficiency, expands access, and preserves the integrity of the financial system. And we should insist that new technologies meet our standards for transparency, security, consumer protection, and law enforcement access.

The fourth principle is that financial leadership is a central instrument of statecraft.

And as Treasury Secretary, I see its workings every day.

There is nothing accidental about the dollar’s place in the world. Its broad usage reflects the depth of our markets, the strength of our rule of law, the credibility of our institutions, and the scale of our economy.

Of course, that leadership role bestows enormous advantages, among them lower borrowing costs, deeper capital markets, enhanced sanctions capabilities, and great influence across the global financial system.

But it also imposes obligations that we cannot ignore. Sanctions evasion, terrorist finance, proliferation finance, cybercrime, narcotics trafficking, and corruption all exploit weaknesses in the financial system. Treasury’s job is to protect the integrity of the financial system by rooting out these abuses—and to deploy this power with discipline. Sanctions must be targeted, enforceable, and connected to strategy. And they must be paired with diplomacy, compliance, intelligence, and coordination with partners.

The fifth and most important principle is that economic statecraft must serve the American people.

The purpose of American economic statecraft is to connect national power with household prosperity.

We need an economy in which our working families are not merely consumers of what the world produces, but participants in what America builds.

An economy in which no community is asked to accept permanent decline as the cost of global efficiency.

An economy in which the gains of national strength are broadly shared beyond the boardrooms and trading floors to the families and communities who sustain it.

America’s competitive advantage has never been confined to the bounty of our natural resources or the depth of our capital markets. It has always resided in the character and the capacity of our people; the entrepreneur with the temerity to turn an idea into an enterprise, the worker with the ability to master new trades and new technologies that didn’t exist a decade ago, and the institutions that allow their freedom and confidence to flourish.

The purpose of economic statecraft is to restore that confidence.

It is to affirm to the American people that our openness and strength can go together. That partnership abroad can reinforce prosperity at home. That we can retain the dynamism of our markets while defending the foundations of our national interests. That America can welcome investment and trade without accepting dependency or decline.

So, what should the world expect from the United States?

Our partners should expect clarity.

They should expect a nation committed to strong alliances and productive economic relationships. A nation that welcomes fair competition, rewards investment, and believes in open commerce.

But they should also expect a nation that is now more aware of its interests—and more prepared to protect them.

A nation that insists on reciprocity. That shields its firms from discriminatory treatment. Secures its critical supply chains. Enforces sanctions and combats illicit finance. A United States, in short, that will not allow economic policy to grow detached from national strategy.

Our adversaries, meanwhile, should expect resolve.

Attempts to weaponize supply chains, steal technology, evade sanctions, manipulate markets, or coerce our partners will not go unanswered. We will build resilience before crises occur. We will work with partners wherever possible. And we will act whenever necessary.

Finally, the American people should expect that the Trump Administration will continue to put their security and prosperity first.

They should expect policy that rewards work, investment, production, and innovation. Leadership that understands how productive capacity is power. An economy whose success is measured not merely by what it produces, but by whom it lifts.

These are not new ambitions. Indeed, they are among the most abiding ones we hold.

So as we approach a great national milestone, we would do well to remember that our founders left us more than a Republic; they bequeathed a roadmap powerful enough to sustain it for two and a half centuries.

Of course, our founders scarcely could have foreseen the world we inhabit today. The industries we have built. The technologies we have invented. The prosperity we have created. Or the power we have come to attain.

But what they did understand was something far more enduring: that the fortunes of a nation are shaped by the energies of its people.

That great insight has been the source of America’s strength since its founding. It’s what transformed a small republic on the edge of a continent into the most prosperous nation over the long sweep of human civilization.

It now falls on us to preserve that inheritance, not by seeking a smaller role in the world, but a stronger foundation for our leadership.

Not by seeking conflict, but by insisting on fair competition. By ensuring that our openness serves to strengthen America, and the partnerships we form are worthy of the name.

Those are reasonable expectations for any nation. They are also necessary ones for the United States, for we have been, and will remain, the most important economic partner in the world. But we are now a partner with higher standards and greater expectations. We are a partner that has regained knowledge of the value that we offer—and the will, once again, to defend it.

That is American economic statecraft in the twenty-first century.

Open to the world while anchored at home.

Confident in our strengths and clear-eyed about our interests.

And committed, above all, to the security, prosperity, and freedom of our people for the next 250 years and well beyond.

Thank you.

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