Former Dallas Mayor Nominated As Obama's Chief Trade Negotiator

by Mike Godfrey Tax-News.com, Washington

02 January 2009

President-elect Barack Obama has nominated former Dallas mayor Ron Kirk to the post of United States Trade Representative, a move which has received a cautious welcome by business representatives and senior figures on Capitol Hill.

Kirk, who served as Mayor of Dallas from 1995-2001, is the final economic appointment of the incoming Obama administration that will be officially inaugurated later this month. However, as a relative novice on the international trade front, he will face some stern challenges as the United State's chief trade negotiator; important new trade agreements with Columbia, Panama and South Korea remain stalled, while a crucial final agreement on the World Trade Organisation's Doha round of international trade negotiations, which aims to lower tariffs and other trade barriers, hangs in the balance.

All this will be played out against a backdrop of economic turmoil both domestically and globally, not to mention Obama's conflicting signals on the new direction of US trade policy - the President elect has suggested that, while he is pro-free trade, the North American Free Trade Agreement should be renegotiated to give US workers a better deal, and he has repeatedly chided US multinationals for choosing to invest in foreign markets rather than create jobs at home. Nevertheless, despite these major challenges, Kirk seems to have the support of the men who must approve his nomination.

"Mr. Kirk has proven himself to be an intelligent, strategic leader who understands the needs of our communities enabling him to be a powerful advocate for America’s interests in the global marketplace,” House of Representatives Ways and Means Committee Chairman Charles B. Rangel (D-NY) and Trade Subcommittee Chairman Sander M. Levin (D-MI) said in a joint statement.

"We have made progress in recent years toward building a new bipartisan trade policy that spreads the benefits of trade more broadly, holds our trading partners accountable to the rules, takes on the new challenges of the global marketplace and prepares all Americans to take maximum advantage of the opportunities that globalization can offer," they added.

Over in the Senate, Max Baucus, Chairman of the Committee on Finance, which has jurisdiction over trade legislation, concurred with Rangel and Levin.

"Mr. Kirk is a distinguished attorney and former big-city mayor with a long record of accomplishment in both the public and private sectors. He knows the benefits that trade can bring to local communities, and he has worked tirelessly to promote Texas exports overseas. I expect that once confirmed as USTR, he would be just as successful at promoting US exports on a national scale," he said.

Baucus continued: "I look forward to talking with Mr. Kirk about my number-one trade priority, the renewal and expansion of Trade Adjustment Assistance. I want to work with him on smart trade initiatives that will open markets around the world to US farm products, manufactured goods, and services, and that will create good-paying jobs here at home."

Despite the faintly protectionist noises emanating from Obama and some leading Democrats, Kirk's nomination has also earned praise from the US Chamber of Commerce, one of America's largest business lobby groups, with its President and CEO Thomas J. Donohue observing that: “During his time in Washington, Austin, and Dallas, [he] demonstrated a keen understanding of the benefits of trade as an engine for growth and jobs".

Donohue added, with a note of caution, that: "Rebuilding the bipartisan consensus on trade will be job one as US Trade Representative, but in the end, his mission will be to open overseas markets to American goods and services."

However, some, such as Chuck Grassley, the ranking Republican on the Senate Finance Committee, have expressed some concern over Kirk's lack of experience as a trade negotiator, particularly given the challenging economic circumstances, and some observers have noted that the low-key appointment shows that trade will be a low priority on Obama's political agenda.

Commenting on the nomination, Grassley stated: "I hope to hear that he’s planning a pro-active trade agenda. The country needs an engaged US Trade Representative who has a mandate to drive an ambitious program to expand market access opportunities for exporters.”

Grassley is also looking for "clear signs from the President-elect that trade expansion will play a central role in his economic agenda."

"A very good first step would be confirming that the US Trade Representative will have rank as a member of his Cabinet," he noted.

In addition to his six-year stint as the Mayor of Dallas, Kirk, a lawyer by trade, also served as the Texas Secretary of State in 1994, and as an aide to United States Senator Lloyd Bentsen. In 2002 he ran for the US Senate himself, but lost out to Republican John Cornyn.

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