Thread: Kirk Rejects any 'Timeout' on New NAFTA-Like Free Trade Pact

From The Christian Science Monitor
"The Monitor Breakfast"

Ron Kirk rejects any 'timeout' on new NAFTA-like free trade pacts

Ron Kirk, US trade representative, wants lawmakers to push ahead on new free trade pacts. Some Democrats advocate a timeout to assess the effects of existing accords such as NAFTA.


Michael Bonfigli / The Christian Science Monitor

By Howard LaFranchi Staff writer / March 3, 2010

Washington

The Obama administration is pouring cold water on a suggestion from some congressional Democrats for a “timeoutâ€

Obama's export goals: Will China trade be a sticking point?

Unless the US-China trade gap is seriously addressed, some economists say, Obama’s goal of 2 million new trade-related jobs will be unattainable.


A Chinese woman cleaner walks past a banner with the word 'Trade' on it in a central business district in Beijing, China, Tuesday.

Ng Han Guan / AP

By Howard LaFranchi Staff writer / February 4, 2010

Washington
China 330, US 88.

Those numbers are not the score of some hotly contested international sporting event, but the value of the goods – in billions of dollars – that each country sells to the other.

That yawning gap between the two will loom large as President Obama pursues a goal he announced in his State of the Union address: doubling US exports and creating 2 million trade-related jobs in the next half decade.

China may not be America’s largest trading partner, but its economy is the fastest-growing major economy in the world. Unless the US-China trade gap is seriously addressed, some economists say, the goal of 2 million new trade-related jobs will be unattainable.

“You can’t do it without cracking the Chinese market, and you can’t crack the Chinese market without doing something about China’s currency manipulation and trade barriers,â€