Utah Gov. Spencer Cox talks trade mission, his hopes for the next 3 years and beyond

SYDNEY, Australia — By the time he sat down with a reporter Friday to talk about all things “Trade Mission,” Utah Gov. Spencer Cox had spent more than a week traversing multiple time zones and meeting with a prime minister and dozens of government officials.

He had toured an Auckland space institute. Participated in a traditional Maori welcoming ceremony. Swapped ideas with New Zealand’s Paralympics leaders. Donned a Utah Mammoth cap for a bumpy flight to Australia. Strategized with Utah lawmakers. Delivered a plenary address at an international mining conference. And, finally, toured a Sydney biorefinery that recovers gold, copper and other metals from discarded electronic appliances.

Cox also delivered speech after speech after speech.

And at each trade mission event, the governor’s message was typically the same: Utah is open for business.

Despite his frenetic schedule — executed thousands of miles from home — Cox looked as crisp as his gray suit while reflecting on the 2025 World Trade Center Utah Trade Mission to New Zealand and Australia.

“”We’re the No. 1 state in the nation because a whole bunch of people before me made trips like this and invested and worked hard and attracted investment to our state,” Cox told the Deseret News.

“And I have a duty to keep that going forward.”

Besides discussing the Utah trade mission to Oceania — which ended Friday — Cox reaffirmed his ongoing commitment to his “Disagree Better” movement.

And he also checked off what he hopes to accomplish over the next three years — even while looking ahead to the day he becomes “Former Gov. Cox.”

Building economic relationships in the Pacific

As governor, Cox believes his relationship-building efforts over the course of Utah’s New Zealand/Australia trade mission will help fortify the state’s economy, both short- and long-term.

The globe may be a bit deceptive when it reveals the vast space between Utah and the geographically remote New Zealand and Australia.

“This is an important region for our state; the connections that we have to Australia and New Zealand,” said Cox.

“These are markets that are growing rapidly, and we have so much in common.”

But the motivations behind Utah’s New Zealand/Australia trade mission stretch beyond economics.

It’s also geopolitical, said Cox.

“I believe that subnational relationships are important for national relationships,” he said. “So we’ve tried to choose regions that matter.

“We know there is a lot of tension in the Indo-Pacific region, and these are our allies and a huge market for Utahns — both from a tourism perspective, as well as from an investment perspective.”

The just-concluded trade mission, Cox added, “went even better than we had planned and hoped for.”

Cox met with New Zealand Prime Minister Christopher Luxon on Oct. 17. Soon other high ranking government officials in the region were asking for an audience with the Utah contingent.

“That’s a change from when I started this five years ago, where we were kind of begging to get into doors,” he said. “Now they’re asking for us to come — and those doors are opening before we even get here.”

The governor noted that the 2025 trade mission fortified existing relationships between Utah companies and their counterparts in Australia and New Zealand.

“But we’ve gone to meetings and random companies that we’ve never heard of have come up and said, ‘Hey, I’m already looking to come to Utah’, or ‘I’ve heard what you said, and we want to invest’.”

Cox also spoke of a possible consortium of Utah universities and Australian universities working together to advance the aerospace and defense industries — as well as mining and critical minerals opportunities.

University of Utah President Taylor Randall participated in the Utah trade mission to Australia and New Zealand — even skipping the recent Utah-BYU football game to attend.

The governor said having the university president at his side only added to the power and legitimacy of the trade mission.

Cox calls Randall one of the top-five university presidents in the nation. “There is nobody like him that gets the role of a university — both in truth-seeking and in helping people to develop economic opportunities and change lives.”

How events in Washington, D.C., reshaped Utah’s Pacific trade tour

Mining and critical minerals had long been a key element of the Utah trade mission to New Zealand and Australia.

Cox’s predecessor, Gov. Gary Herbert, had planned for a similar trade mission in 2020. But it had to be scrapped because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

So Cox and others had long planned to travel to this part of the Pacific — “not knowing when we planned the tour that this would be the geopolitical center of a huge agreement that just coincided with us being here.”

The governor, of course, was referencing the $8.5 billion critical minerals deal that was signed Monday at the White House by President Donald Trump and Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese. The agreement is designed to counter China’s domination of the critical minerals market.

Critical minerals are vital to the United States and other developed nations because of their wide use in everything from fighter jets to electric vehicles and cellphones.

Being able to tout Utah’s mining opportunities in Australia and at an international mining conference — even as historic critical mineral/rare earths agreements were being signed in Washington, D.C. — proved to be unexpected good fortune.

Cox said the Utah delegation also received unprecedented attention in Australia because of the ongoing government shutdown in the U.S.

A federal delegation was unable to directly participate in the mining conference. “So we weren’t just representing Utah, we were representing the entire country,” he said. “That opened doors in ways that we could never have anticipated.”

Trump also signaled his support this week for AUKUS, a security pact with Australia, the U.S. and the United Kingdom.

The president’s AUKUS “stamp of approval” was also a boon to the Utah trade delegation’s aerospace and defense team on the ground here.

“We could not have written a script like that,” said Cox. “It would have been rejected as too coincidental, too convenient. And yet it happened — and we’ve gotten far more attention than we would normally get under these circumstances.”

In harmony with Trump’s mining vision

Cox emphasized his vision for critical mineral mining and processing in Utah are “completely in alignment” with Trump’s vision.

For too long, he added, domestic mines have off-shored too many critical minerals for processing to China. Now those risky practices are being remedied.

“Australia is one of the premier mining capitals of the world, and their expertise in extraction is important. But together, we can do better.”

The governor noted that Australian companies have been investing in Utah mines for decades. There are also new mines, he said, that are going to open. And old mines in Utah are being reopened with the help of Australian companies.

But the best piece of the recent developments, “was the idea of putting the processing facilities right next to those mines — or close enough where we get the benefit of all of that supply chain, right in the United States.

“It will save money — and provide us with the materials we need for our safety and security as a nation.”

This week’s U.S./Australia agreement, added Cox, is a “win-win” for both nations.

“I’m proud of the President and Prime Minister Albanese for coming to an agreement.”

Once home, Cox plans to connect with both Trump and U.S. trade representative Jamieson Greer and report on Utah’s trade mission to New Zealand and Australia.

“I had face-to-face meetings with the trade ministers for both New Zealand and Australia because Jamieson Greer asked them to meet with us. So that connection is really important.”

Trade tour concludes — now the follow-up begins

Only the future knows the final fruits of Utah’s 2025 New Zealand/Australia trade mission.

But Cox is optimistic, pointing to the tangible results that followed similar trade visits to Dubai and, earlier this year, to Canada.

Already, he said, there are business partnerships developing between Utah and Australia and New Zealand.

And an agreement between universities in Utah and schools in the region is also expected soon.

Trade mission follow-up in both Australia and New Zealand is critical, said Cox. So a smaller Utah delegation will be returning to the region in early 2026.

“We will have pages of follow-ups,” he said, “that we will work on for the next year.”

Cox said the partnerships being developed between Utah and institutions in this corner of the world stretch beyond trade.

“Utah is leading the charge to protect our kids in the area of social media in the United States, and Australia is leading the charge worldwide. They have been very aggressive.

“Australia passed a ban on social media for kids under 16. They have a year for that to go into effect.”

Cox said government leaders in New South Wales, Australia, also share his commitment to getting cellphones out of school, bell-to-bell.

Wide awareness of the Charlie Kirk slaying

In his discussion Friday with the Deseret News, Cox said he discovered during the New Zealand/Australia tour that folks in these distant countries closely followed last month’s murder of Charlie Kirk.

They tuned in to press conferences and news developments originating out of Utah.

“I’ve been stunned — through every level of government and business leaders — who were all talking to me about ‘Disagree Better,’ and who were talking to me about the tragedy.”

Cox said many in this region share his hopes to cool the heat of political division.

“There is at least a recognition that it’s not just an American problem — the polarization that we’re seeing,” he said.

“Australia feels it as well. New Zealand feels it. And they’re interested in trying to find ways to disagree without hate and to lower the temperature, find dignity and respect and work together and find common solutions to solving our biggest problems.”

Cox’s wishes for his final 3 years in office

The governor is not running for reelection in 2028. It’s a pledge he again made Friday.

But there is much he wants to accomplish over the next three years.

Besides solidifying Utah’s economic future, he plans to keep focus on protecting kids from the dangers of social media.

He also wants to launch a literacy initiative. Because of social media, he said, “kids aren’t reading books anymore.”

Preserving the Great Salt Lake is another priority.

“And then,” he said, “preparing for the world to come to Utah for the Winter Olympics,”

During the New Zealand/Australia trade mission, Cox said he discussed with Utah Senate President Stuart Adams about what the next level of infrastructure investment might look like. Considerations could include expanding FrontRunner and light rail.

He also lists Utah’s homelessness challenge as a high priority.

“(It’s about) making sure that we’re taking care of our most vulnerable people — getting them the services they need and getting them off the street.

Public safety, he added, is paramount. But so is helping those in need.

And what will Spencer Cox do when he’s no longer governor?

Cox said Friday he has no clue what he will do once his second term is up.

He will still be a relatively young man in his early 50s — and he and his wife, Utah first lady Abby Cox, often talk about what’s next for the couple.

“Whatever we do, we hope to be in service to the state of Utah,” he said.

“We hope to continue to make Utah a great place to live.

“We hope that we will have opportunities to continue to try to depolarize our country as well, because we think that’s paramount for the survival of our republic for the next 250 years.”