President-elect Barack Obama signalled a major shift in trade policy and labour relations on Friday as he rounded out a Cabinet of “rivals” tasked with implementing an ambitious United States economic recovery plan.
Obama, who leaves on Saturday for a Christmas holiday in Hawaii, said trade agreements will have to be reciprocal and include “enforceable” environmental and labour standards to prevent a “race to the bottom” and a further loss of US jobs.
“In the global economy we must compete and win if we are going to strengthen the middle class and forge bonds with other nations to contribute to peace and stability around the world,” Obama said as he completed his Cabinet line-up.
“But I also believe that any trade agreement we sign must be written not just with the interests of big corporations in mind, but with the interests of our whole nation and our workers at heart.”
Obama tapped free trade advocate and former Dallas mayor Ron Kirk (54) as US trade representative to take on the complex, delicate task of juggling global negotiations.
“Like president-elect Obama, I believe a values-driven agenda that stays true to our commitment to America’s workers and environmental sustainability is not only consistent with a pro-trade agenda, but it’s also necessary for its success,” Kirk said.
Obama, who takes office on January 20, also named Democratic lawmaker Hilda Solis as labour secretary to stand up for working families, and a former Republican congressman, Ray LaHood, as transport secretary to rebuild the country’s transportation system.
“For the past eight years, the Department of Labour has not lived up to its role either as an advocate for hard-working families or as an arbiter of fairness in relations between labour and management,” Obama said.
“That will change when Hilda Solis is secretary of labour. Under her leadership, I am confident that the Department of Labour will once again stand up for working families.”
Putting LaHood in charge of a spending spree on the nation’s crumbling infrastructure, Obama vowed he would be part of an administration seeking to “craft a 21st century economic recovery plan, with the goal of creating two-and-a-half million new jobs and strengthening our economy for the future.”
The 63-year-old is the second Republican named to Obama’s Cabinet after Robert Gates, who is staying on as secretary of defence.
“We need to remake our transportation system for the 21st century,” Obama said.
“Doing so will not only help us meet our energy challenge by building more efficient cars, buses and subways or make Americans safer by rebuilding our crumbling roads and bridges, it will create millions of new jobs in the process.”
Obama leaves on Saturday for Hawaii, where he will spend the holidays with family and friends but will continue to do transition work, his office said.
The president-elect also welcomed a $13,4-billion rescue package put forward by the US government on Friday for cash-strapped General Motors and Chrysler.
But he warned the country’s ailing car makers not to “squander this chance to reform bad management practices and begin the long-term restructuring that is absolutely necessary to save this critical industry and the millions of American jobs that depend on it”.
Obama also said a “bold” stimulus plan was needed to pull the US economy out of recession but would not provide a dollar amount for the package.
Obama has proposed an ambitious stimulus plan to create 2,5-million jobs through massive investments in infrastructure, which some estimate could cost up to a trillion dollars.
While these are still early days, Obama can bask in stellar polls since he won the November 4 elections, with 83% of respondents in a Marist survey on Wednesday approving of his performance so far.
By common consent, Obama has filled his Cabinet quickly but also with much thought to ability as he emulates the “team of rivals” assembled by his political hero, Civil War president Abraham Lincoln.
Led by former Democratic nominating rival Hillary Clinton at the State Department, the incoming Cabinet has respected technocrat Timothy Geithner at Treasury and two Republicans, including Gates.
While Geithner gets the unenviable task of hauling the US economy out of recession, Gates must exit Iraq and redouble the fight in Afghanistan.
Clinton has no lesser a task of remaking the nation’s frayed image abroad, while pursuing Middle East peace, rebuilding a tattered nuclear pact with North Korea and calming a fresh surge in India-Pakistan tensions. — AFP