World watches how Obama will organize trade deals

By JEAN LOIUS SANTINI

Manila Bulletin

November 13, 2008

WASHINGTON (AFP) — With the eyes of the world on President-elect Barack Obama and his plans for the future direction of the United States, many countries are worried that tougher trade rules may be on the agenda.

"American public opinion has changed, it’s slightly less free trade oriented now," said John Fortier, from the rightwing think tank the American Enterprise Institute.

With the world’s top economy struggling under the weight of the global financial crisis, there are some fears that the US response could be to pull in the draw-bridge and ride out the storm.

In the months before his historic Nov. 4 election triumph, Obama heavily criticized the current administration of President George W. Bush for a fiscal policy which rewarded many big businesses even though they moved production overseas to take advantage of cheaper, foreign workforces.

Unemployment figures have risen to their highest levels since 1994, and Obama has vowed to re-stimulate the economy and create jobs.

‘’Clearly there will be an interest in reassessing US trade policy,’’ said Jeffrey Schott, a former Treasury official and an expert with the Institute of International Economics.

‘’There is an unfinished agenda and the Obama administration will have to figure out a political strategy for dealing with the free trade agreements with Colombia and South Korea that are already signed but not yet ratified.’’

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown on Monday urged Obama to lead a new era of US cooperation to help fashion a changed world order out of the global financial crisis.

Recent joint action on interest rates and banks showed the potential of wider multilateralism as the world grapples with the financial crisis, he said.

‘’While I see a world that is facing financial crisis and still diminished by conflict and injustice, I also see the chance to forge a new multilateralism that is both hard-headed and progressive,’’ Brown said.

But as Illinois senator, Obama took a cautious approach. He opposed the free trade deal with Seoul fearful of giving South Korean cars free access to US markets. And he also opposed the ongoing Colombia deal due to suspect labor conditions.

Obama also insisted he would work to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Accord (NAFTA) with Mexico and Canada, backing opposition to the deal from American labor unions.

‘’I think that one new initiative early on in the Obama administration will be to get together with Canada and Mexico and reassess NAFTA and see what needs to be done to update it, to take account of the very significant changes that have occured in the world economy since the agreement was negotiated 15 years ago,’’ said Schott.

‘’There are three main areas of concern for all three countries: border security, energy security and climate change,’’ he said. ‘’In all three areas there is an urgent need for NAFTA to be updated.’’

There could also be a review of US policy towards China in order to ‘’integrate their approach in both trade terms, investments, foreign policy and the security issue.’’

Schott argued Obama’s administration was likely to be more meticulous in ensuring that countries like China stick to trade rules and ensure proper workforce conditions.

‘Building a government’: Obama unleashes transition teams

By STEPHEN COLLINSON

WASHINGTON (AFP) - US president-elect Barack Obama is sending teams of evaluators through the length and breadth of the sprawling US bureaucracy to help him reset the course of the ship of state on Jan. 20.

Obama’s 450-strong transition team will scour more than 100 departments and agencies for data to underpin new policies as soon as his inauguration ushers in a historic presidency.

Transition co-chair John Podesta promised on Tuesday that Obama would publish the names of aides who will begin burrowing into government monoliths like the State Department, Treasury and the Pentagon as early as Monday.

‘’This is part of our commitment to make this the most open and transparent transition in history,’’ Podesta said at his first post-election press conference here called to outline the process of ‘’building a government.’’

‘’Under president-elect Obama and vice presidentelect Biden, the American people will see a transition of government that is efficient, that is organized, that is bipartisan and more open and transparent than others before.’’

Podesta said the transition team would employ around 450 people in the US capital and Obama’s hometown Chicago with a budget of 12 million dollars.

As part of an accelerated effort to get the government up and running at a time of international turmoil, Podesta said over 100 interim security clearances had already been issued to transition personnel.

Obama said during his first post-election press conference last week that he would move with ‘’deliberate haste’’ to fill cabinet positions.

He has yet to make any nominations though White House staff announcements are expected soon before heavy-hitting cabinet posts are announced -- likely in Chicago.

The president-elect, honoring protocol that there is ‘’only one president at a time’’ will stay away from the weekend’s international economic summit in Washington, but aides will likely meet foreign delegates.

On Tuesday, Obama advisors tried to dispel suggestions of tensions with the White House after it emerged that he had pressed outgoing President George W. Bush in private talks on Monday for immediate aide for reeling US auto giants.

The New York Times cited unnamed sources as saying the president may agree to new funding for the troubled sector and a new economic stimulus package if Democrats pass a Colombia free trade pact which is stalled in Congress.

Obama aides denied Bush offered the Colombia pact as part of a deal.

‘’The topic of Colombia came up. There was no quid pro quo in the conversation,’’ Podesta said.

The Bush administration has promised unprecedented cooperation with the Obama transition team, and invited aides to the president-elect to shadow outgoing officials.

Podesta, a former Clinton administration chief-of-staff, also said the nascent administration was working through complicated issues involved in his campaign pledge to close the Guantanamo Bay ‘’war on terror’’ camp in Cuba.

The Democratic president-elect is already under fierce pressure from human rights groups to close the controversial high-security facility but faces a legal minefield in deciding where to house inmates and how to try them.

mb.com.ph