Watch the complete hearing in the embedded video above. Wendy Cutler's opening remarks start at 25:00. Click here to see the full list of witnesses.

In testimony before the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on East Asia and the Pacific, ASPI Vice President Wendy Cutler discussed her views on recent trade developments and emphasized that the U.S. government’s structures must evolve to reflect shifts in the global economic landscape.

Cutler urged Congress to pursue practical institutional reforms rather than wholesale reorganization. She recommended steps such as strengthening economic expertise at the State Department, clarifying its leadership in areas like economic coercion and critical minerals, and integrating the Foreign Commercial Service into the State Department to streamline overseas business support. However, she emphasized that any governmental reforms may fall short if they are not coupled with well thought through policy.

“In today’s environment, economic policy is indeed foreign policy,” Cutler told lawmakers. “Successful economic statecraft cannot be achieved solely by rethinking how we are organized at home. It must be anchored in a coherent, fair, and sustainable economic and trade policy framework.”