Gov. Hutchinson Touts European Trip To Little Rock Rotary Club

Final discussions that led to the announced 85-job expansion at Calhoun County’s Aerojet Rocketdyne facility occurred during Gov. Asa Hutchinson’s trip to the Paris Air Show last week, Hutchinson said during a speech to the Little Rock Rotary Club 99 Tuesday.

The expansion, announced Monday, will increase employment at the plant to more than 630. Aerojet Rocketdyne produces solid rocket motors and warheads for other defense manufacturers located around the Camden area.

Hutchinson used the speech to tout his trip last week to Paris and to Germany. It was the first time an Arkansas governor had attended the Paris Air Show, which drew six governors this year. He also visited multiple German companies with locations in Arkansas. At a steel show, he signed a spindle that will be used in the Big River Steel facility.

“We’re in a competitive environment, and if the governor is not there marketing the state, then there’s an absence, and we have an opportunity to showcase Arkansas, to be competitive in the global arena, and that’s what I did, and that’s what I intend to continue to do,” he said.

Hutchinson urged Congress to extend trade promotion authority so the president over the next six years can negotiate trade agreements that are subject to an up-or-down vote by Congress. To argue for trade agreements, he said a German auto manufacturer had told him that its Mexico facility can export vehicles to Europe with no tariff. If the plant were located in the United States, a 10% tariff would be added.

He touted his initiative that will require a computer coding class to be offered in every high school, which he hopes produces 6,000 course graduates each year within the next four years. Hutchinson was to appear on CNBC early Wednesday morning to talk about the subject and has published an article, “Why the next Zuckerberg or Sandberg may come from Arkansas” that now appears on the network’s website.

He also stressed the importance of Arkansas developing “supply chain drivers” such as the possible Lockheed Martin site that would manufacture the military’s Joint Light Tactical Vehicle. He said an Arkansas-based supplier for Dassault Falcon Jet had told him it cannot expand on its own unless Dassault expands first.