CHICAGO — President Barack Obama is committed to completing the free-trade agreements started by the Bush administration, U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk said Monday.
Agreements with Panama, Colombia and South Korea are progressing, said Kirk, who declined to offer a timetable for wrapping up negotiations and sending the pacts to Congress for ratification. Kirk objected to characterizations that the trade agreements were essentially finished by the time Obama began his presidency a year ago.
“The reality is that they’ve each had their own challenges,” Kirk said to reporters before a panel discussion on export opportunities for small businesses in Chicago.
Kirk said free-trade agreements expand markets for U.S.-made goods by eliminating tariffs that make U.S. exports more expensive. That, in turn, supports U.S. employment.
But free-trade deals have been widely unpopular with labor unions. Critics maintain that removing trade barriers encourages companies to abandon domestic operations and relocate to low-cost foreign locations.
