Do Utahns benefit when their governor travels the world? Cox responds

SALT LAKE CITY — While a trip to a beautiful country like Ireland is always a pleasure, joining a trade mission is a lot more work than it sounds.

There are deals to be made, briefings to be had and pitches to be listened to. The delegation, led by Gov. Spencer Cox and organized by World Trade Center Utah and the Governor's Office of Economic Development, connects with trade groups, lawmakers, economic development teams and businesses with connections to Utah — including Ancestry.com in Dublin, which has an office with a panoramic view of the city.

Every time the governor and state lawmakers go on these trips — Cox has gone on 16 foreign trips since becoming governor six years ago — they get pushback from people back home who want to know if there is value to be found for the average Utahn.

So, in an interview with the Deseret News on the last day of the trip, Cox was asked whether trade missions, like his latest to Ireland, are helpful for people in the Beehive State — and not just those in the business community who might attend a trip like this, but the average Utahn who probably won't.

First, Cox wanted to make clear that while some public money is used for the travel, the vast majority of the trip is funded by the businesses that attend. "We're very careful not to spend a lot of public dollars on these trips," he said.

Next, he wanted to make clear that he believes there absolutely are benefits for the whole state from these travels, pointing to Ireland as an example. In the past 30 years, Ireland has made extraordinary economic strides, going from one of the poorest countries in Europe to among the richest.

"They didn't get there by staying home. They invested in their people. They invested in their education system. They invested in policy. They got all of those pieces right — including tax policy. And then they recruited," he said. "And what we're trying to do here is to help Utah businesses to be more successful. … And that creates more jobs at home — more higher-paying jobs at home. It creates more tax revenue for better schools and the things that people expect government to deliver on."

Jonathan Freedman, director of World Trade Center Utah, echoed the governor when asked what benefits he sees for Utahns from foreign trade missions.

Freedman said one of the goals of a trade mission is to grow Utah exports, while the other goal is to convince foreign investors to do business in Utah.

"This is good for Utah. It grows our workforce, expands research and development, opens up opportunities for university exchanges, and, ultimately, strengthens our families and our communities at home," he said. "We want to export our goods and services, not our children."

Freedman said having the governor on a trade mission changes the level of access for the whole group.

"There's something powerful when business leaders and entrepreneurs show up with our governor and with legislators. They open doors to markets that are often closed to small business owners," he said.

Freedman is an entrepreneur himself. He co-founded Downeast, a clothing and furniture retail chain, with his brothers before selling the company in 2020.

"We don't have those large (Fortune 500) companies in Utah, and honestly, it's to our benefit," he said. "We have one of the most diverse economies in the country built of small and medium-sized businesses. That allows us to be nimble and agile, and we are able to pivot when something like tariffs are disruptive."

Cox acknowledged that there are governors who haven't done this the right way.

"I know there are governors in this country who determine a place they would like to go, and they put a trade mission together to go there," he said. "We made a commitment from day one that we would never do that, that the data would drive where we go. And so every year World Trade Center and (the Governor's Office of Economic Development) come with a list of three or four countries that they feel like we need to visit because there's a relationship, a connection, a business sector that could improve by doing that."

In Ireland, the primary focus was on strengthening the connection between Utah's medical tech industry with its Irish counterpart. Tech, finance and quantum sectors also had representatives on the trip.

After the trip, both Freedman and the governor said in separate interviews that they follow up to make sure the conversations started on the trip bear fruit, and that they try to quantify the downstream effects.

"This is where I hope people understand that every job in Utah is interrelated," Cox said. "As we create more opportunities, that means our kids and grandkids get jobs in the future. It means that your taxes don't increase because the economy is growing. Everything we do in an integrated economy impacts every person in Utah. So there are huge benefits because of these conversations."

Utah trade delegation travels to Northern Ireland

As the Utah trade delegation passed from the Republic of Ireland into Northern Ireland, there was not a tangible demarcation at the border that marked the passage. But there were differences.

Northern Ireland isn't that far removed from the "Troubles," years of violent clashes, including bombings, between the Protestant and Catholic communities that spilled over into the rest of the United Kingdom. In 1998, political leaders from Northern Ireland, the Republic of Ireland, and the U.K. signed a peace accord known as the Good Friday Agreement, which President Bill Clinton helped broker.

While the tensions in the country aren't entirely erased, when the Utah delegation got to Belfast, they met with groups ready to sell them on the advantages Northern Ireland has because of its unique access to the European Union market for goods, based on an agreement signed after Brexit, and its access to the rest of the United Kingdom as well as the trade agreements the U.K. has signed.

Northern Ireland has "unmatched market reach," according to Alastair James, Invest NI's head of market access, because of its unique trading partnership with the European Union while still a part of the United Kingdom.

"If you're looking for a European and U.K. footprint, then Northern Ireland has everything that you need," he told the Utah group during a meeting on Monday.

While in Belfast, Cox and the other legislators met with Speaker of the Northern Ireland Assembly Edwin Poots. Then, back in Dublin on Tuesday, they met with Bertie Ahern, who was prime minister of Ireland when the peace accords were signed.

Utah first lady Abby Cox, who was at the meeting with Ahern as well as at a meeting earlier in the trip with current Irish Prime Minister Micheál Martin, said she was struck by the link to social media in both conversations.

Meeting with the current Taoiseach, the Irish name for the head of government, Abby Cox said they discussed the "global problem" facing leaders because of the spread of social media.

Then, with Ahern, "he was talking about the Good Friday peace agreement, and I was thinking to myself as he was talking, would that have happened today with the social media environment that we're in?"

"I kind of doubt it," she continued. "There's just too much incentive to not find peace. And so that's the tricky part of all this, but also a reason to continue to engage."

The first lady pointed to the good will fostered during the World Cup, when people from across the world came to the United States and found "a people who were kind and generous and friendly."

"Coming here feels like the same thing. If we're seeing each other face to face, we're seeing the real person, the real culture, the real people," Cox said. "It feels like we're building peace through these relationships that are real and not social media algorithmically driven."

Trade in a time of turmoil

Gov. Cox pointed out that the youngest generation growing up in Ireland wasn't alive during the Troubles, and that almost none of the generation who fought during World War II is left.

"While it may feel like a lifetime ago that those car bombings and the violence was taking place, it wasn't that long ago. And it is fragile and can be broken," he said.

The trade mission came during a time when there is turmoil in places across Europe, as violent protests continue in France, Italy and Spain — and amid a protracted war in Ukraine, and the threat of Russia to other parts of Europe.

And also, of course, continued fighting in the Middle East, with an uneasy pause in the war between the U.S. and Iran that seems likely to flare up again.

There is turmoil as well economically, with President Donald Trump determined to rebuild American manufacturing and to make sure the United States isn't dependent on an uncertain global supply chain. The resulting trade wars that have rippled across the world have meant a lot of uncertainty for businesses.

"Look, this kind of economic restructuring is happening all over the world," Gov. Cox said. "It's not just in the United States. I think Secretary (Marco) Rubio and President Trump and (U.S. Trade Ambassador Jamieson) Greer, who we know very well, are right on some of these issues. There are some very important strategic industries that have left the United States that do put us in peril from a national security perspective."

The vulnerabilities facing the U.S. became apparent during COVID-19, Cox said. "I was talking to a very high-ranking Australian who said the United States can't be the arsenal of democracy if you can't build an arsenal."

"Now, does that mean I agree with everything? It does not," he said. "I think we can become too isolationist and too protectionist, and that's not great either. One of the things Ireland realized was that to be successful, they needed to be more open and that those relationships and those trading partners absolutely matter.

"One of the reasons we have such a high standard of living in the United States is because of free trade. And I believe in free trade and fair trade."

Freedman echoed Cox, as they both spoke about the need to help Utah companies build relationships around the world.

"We can't control what happens in Washington. We're going to work within the framework we're given," Freedman said. "But when we are proactive, when Utahns are proactive and come to a country like Ireland, which is a great entry point to the EU for small businesses at home, we will find opportunities."

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