Secretary Michael R. Pompeo With
Julian Reichelt of BILD-TV
INTERVIEW
MICHAEL R. POMPEO,
SECRETARY OF STATE
WASHINGTON, D.C.
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QUESTION: (Via interpreter)
Welcome here at BILD Live, where we have the U.S. American Secretary
of State Mike Pompeo. Mr. Secretary, good morning.
SECRETARY POMPEO: It’s great to be with
you.
QUESTION: (Via interpreter) America has
worldwide the most death cases of the corona crisis. Is there anything that the American people
expect from the – from Germany? What’s your message to Merkel?
SECRETARY POMPEO:
Look, we work closely with our German friends and partners. This is a
global pandemic. We work with them on solutions for how to get equipment to
right places, how to get a cure and a therapeutic and a vaccine, all of those
things. Our scientists, our private sector entities are in constant
contact. This is a global pandemic. It’s times like this that having a great
partner like Chancellor Merkel in Germany working alongside the United
States to ultimately deliver good outcomes, and not only for the
people of Germany and the United States, but for people all across
the world.
QUESTION: (Via interpreter)
German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas has named China and the United
States in one breath, has said that China has reacted too
authoritative with the crisis, and the United States played
down this problem. Does that – does that bother you when the United
States and dictatorship China are criticized in one breath?
SECRETARY POMPEO: Well, the two countries
have responded very differently for sure. The United States has
taken aggressive action. President Trump has led from the
front to make sure that we respond in a way that protects not only the American people,
but provided unequal assistance to countries around the world – now some $400
million-plus of foreign assistance coming from the United States of America. We’ve
said consistently that we regret that the – this virus, this epidemic that
began in Wuhan, China wasn’t known quickly enough, that the Chinese Government,
the Chinese Communist Party didn’t provide that information in a timely
fashion. That’s most unfortunate because it created real risk around the world,
and those are two very different kinds of response. I know that the
German Government and the American Government will work
together to make sure that as we move forward, we’ll continue to reduce risk.
QUESTION:
(Via interpreter) The Berlin
government has accused the United States of piracy –
that was false accusations – because
the United States were confiscating masks, and they had to say
they were sorry afterwards. So are you worried about this anti-Americanism spirit
in the capital here in Germany?
SECRETARY POMPEO: We certainly want our
good partners to talk about that partnership in a way that reflects the
fundamental, important relationship between our two countries. To your
point – and we’ve seen this broadly, not just in this instance – but we’ve seen
false information in the media. We’ve seen disinformation, some of it probably
unintentional. People just
didn’t know – maybe some of the statements from some of the German Government
leaders or people just didn’t really know what was going on. But some of it,
too, is intentional disinformation, and those are dangerous.
Disinformation coming from any place, whether it’s the disinformation that
emanated from Iran or anywhere, presents real risk. We have to
have good data; we have to have good information. The medical professionals,
the epidemiologists around the world who are going to ultimately resolve this
and allow the world economy to get back on track, need good information.
We need every country participating in this in a transparent, open, accurate
way.
QUESTION: (Via interpreter)
Last month, we talked about making trade more expensive to hire
customers. Would it be possible to lower these customs to do something
for the U.S. economy being so important for the worldwide
economy?
SECRETARY POMPEO: With respect to tariffs,
I think President Trump’s been absolutely unambiguous. We
want low tariffs. We want no non-tariff barriers. We want open, free, robust
trade. Our ask there is that we have fair trade, that it is reciprocal.
That is, if there is a tariff or a non-tariff barrier that’s in place, that we
both remove it. If the United States is doing it, we’ll
remove it if that other country – Germany, wherever – will do it. We want fair,
reciprocal, even trade. And you’re right, fewer trade restrictions allow the
global economy to grow, and as we come out of this that will matter an awful
lot. I hope the EU, European countries will join us in this effort to
reduce these trade restrictions in a fair and reciprocal manner. If we do that,
I’m confident the globe will come out of this in a way that gets us back on
track.
QUESTION: (Via interpreter)
You’ve said it yourself, this crisis started in Wuhan, China. Does there
need to be a global debate if the Chinese Government should be held accountable
for the damage done?
SECRETARY POMPEO: Well, there needs to be
more than a global debate. It’s important to understand how this began,
where this began, where it originated, and that’s science. That’s
fact-based; that is not political. It’s important to know that.
When we try to figure out how it is the case that this happened, importantly so
that we can ensure that something like this does not happen again or at least
we reduce the risk that something like this happens again, it’s absolutely
essential that we understand how these viruses grew, how they began, where they
began, to take down this risk. We’ve seen these stories about Chinese wet
markets, we’ve seen stories about precisely where this virus originated, and
it’s important that the whole world gets this. We want the globe’s best scientists,
including Chinese scientists, to be participants in making sure that we
evaluate where this began, where it originated, how it was moved around the
globe, so that we can take the – we’ve had to shut down the global
economy. That is tragic. There will be real costs associated with that.
We need to make sure that no country ever causes something like this to happen
again and that we’re all working together to reduce the risk of a recurrence of
a threat like COVID-19.
QUESTION: (Via interpreter)
Once again, should China pay for the damage done?
SECRETARY POMPEO: I’ve said pretty
consistently, as had President Trump, we’re looking forward.
We’re trying to find our path to making sure that we reduce risk as we move
forward in the days and weeks and months ahead. We’re incredibly focused
on this. There’ll be a time to make sure that we all understand what happened
and that those who are responsible are held accountable for that. I’m
very confident that that process will take place. For the moment, I think it’s
absolutely essential that we focus on the task ahead of us, getting systems in
place such that we can reopen the American economy, and
ultimately the global economy as well. There’ll be a time for
recriminations.
QUESTION: Secretary Pompeo,
good day to you. Thank you very much and a Happy Easter.
SECRETARY POMPEO: Great, thank you very
much. Have a good day.
QUESTION: Thank you. You
too.
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