Secretary of State Marco Rubio will convene the Economic Diplomacy Action Group, aka EDAG, for its first meeting on Wednesday, providing the Trump administration with a Biden-era forum to align trade, finance, development, and technology policy with U.S. foreign policy goals.
EDAG Targets AI And Economic Statecraft
A State Department official told The Hill that EDAG will "shape the contours and focus of U.S. economic statecraft to advance U.S. foreign policy priorities," including "American leadership in AI."
"The EDAG will coordinate and leverage the full range of U.S. government programs and capacity-building mechanisms to enable economic conditions and opportunities that support U.S. companies, create jobs for American workers, and attract investment into the United States," the official said.
The State Department’s public schedule listed Rubio as delivering remarks at the EDAG meeting at 9 am ET on Wednesday.
Biden Memo Created Broad Cross-Agency Forum
Former President Joe Biden created EDAG in a June 2024 memorandum under the Championing American Business Through Diplomacy Act of 2019. The Federal Register notice said "supporting United States economic and business interests abroad is a foreign policy priority" and directed the Secretary of State to coordinate senior officials across agencies.
The group is expected to include officials from the State, Commerce, Energy, Agriculture, Defense and Treasury departments, along with the U.S. Trade Representative, Export-Import Bank, Development Finance Corporation, U.S. Trade and Development Agency, Small Business Administration, Millennium Challenge Corporation and White House Office of Science and Technology Policy.
Rubio Expands Role In Trump Policy
Rubio’s role fits his broader effort to put the State Department at the center of President Donald Trump’s foreign policy. Reuters reported that he told State Department staff in January last year, "We want to be at the centerpiece, we want to be at the core of how we formulate foreign policy," and said the department needed to move "at the speed of relevance."
The meeting also comes as trade policy increasingly drives U.S. diplomacy. The Trump administration proposed new tariffs on imports from 60 economies, citing forced-labor concerns.
Rubio has also held several roles inside the administration. A separate Reuters report last May noted that he was serving as acting national security adviser, USAID administrator and acting archivist, making him the first person since Henry Kissinger to hold the Secretary of State and national security adviser roles at the same time.
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