President Obama's trade team is coming into focus with the Senate's confirmation Wednesday of Demetrios Marantis as deputy U.S. Trade Representative. Marantis was Senate Finance Chairman Max Baucus' top trade staffer.
Obama also said Wednesday he will work to open foreign markets to U.S. products and make it easier for other countries to sell their goods here, and that he is "developing a plan of action for pending trade agreements" with Panama, Colombia and South Korea.
Obama discussed the benefits of global trade in his proclamation that the third week of May will be World Trade Week, a tradition dating back to the presidency of Franklin Roosevelt. Positive words might be expected in such a proclamation, but Obama himself up until this point had largely delegated the subject to Trade Representative Ron Kirk.
Kirk has said the administration would like to move "relatively quickly" on the Panama pact, which has angered some labor unions and critics on Capitol Hill. The Colombia and South Korea deals are still seen as longer-term projects with no timeline for action.
