Expanding global trade still an Obama economic priority

WASHINGTON -- The chief U.S. trade negotiator insisted Tuesday that boosting cross-border commerce remains an Obama administration priority, despite industry complaints of inaction on several pending deals.

Expanding trade is "an integral part of our economic recovery" program, just like the Obama administration's fiscal stimulus, health care reform and investment in so-called green technologies, Ron Kirk, the U.S. trade representative, said. "We now have a visible manifestation of what happens when the world stops trading. It's not a pretty picture," Kirk said in an interview with USA TODAY.

Global trade plummeted late last year amid the financial crisis and is expected to fall 10% this year, the first such decline since World War II.

The Obama administration is trying to recast trade policy as more sympathetic to workers who blame deals such as the North American Free Trade Agreement for the loss of millions of manufacturing jobs. Kirk saw NAFTA's benefits as the mayor of Dallas but says he understands critics' concerns because several of his in-laws work or worked in the trade-battered auto industry.

"We know we have to approach it differently," he said.

Kirk inherited three trade deals — with Panama, Colombia and South Korea — that had been negotiated but not ratified by Congress.

Hopes that lawmakers would tackle at least one by now have faded as the administration opted to push the health care overhaul first.

Kirk says his office, meanwhile, is working hard to resolve lingering problems with each deal that have sparked opposition from key Democrats on Capitol Hill.

But as the trio of deals idle and global talks on a new Doha Round treaty languish, major global traders are growing increasingly frustrated.

"These are good words. We're waiting for something to happen. We don't see anything going on any of the free-trade agreements," says Bill Reinsch, president of the National Foreign Trade Council, which represents corporations such as Boeing, Caterpillar and Wal-Mart.