Dec. 3 (Bloomberg) -- President-elect Barack Obama said Bill Richardson will be an “economic diplomat” for the U.S. as commerce secretary and a key member of a team that lays the groundwork for renewed growth.

Warning that a recovery from the recession that began last year “won’t happen overnight,” Obama said Richardson has a unique combination of national and international experience to be an “unyielding advocate” for American companies and workers at home and abroad.

“Bill has seen from just about every angle what makes our economy work and what keeps it from working better,” Obama said at a news conference today in Chicago at which he formally announced the New Mexico governor as his choice to lead the Commerce Department.

Richardson, 61, is one of the highest-profile Latinos to hold elective office in the U.S. Before winning his race for governor of New Mexico in 2002 and gaining a second term in 2006, he served in two Cabinet positions in President Bill Clinton’s administration and eight terms in the U.S. House.

He ended his own bid for the Democratic presidential nomination in January and later endorsed Obama, calling him a “once-in-a-lifetime leader” who can unite the country. That move was a rebuke to Hillary Clinton, who Obama has picked for secretary of state, and her husband publicly lashed out at Richardson at the time.

Past Competitors

Richardson downplayed any suggestions that hard feelings lingered from the campaign.

“There are some who speak of a team of rivals,” he said. “But I’ve never seen it that way. Past competitors, yes.”

Richardson said that he would use his position to promote trade. “Boosting commerce between states and nations is not just a path to solvency and growth; it’s the only path,” he said.

He vowed to make the Commerce Department an integral part of Obama’s financial recovery plan. The “catchphrases of your economic plan” Richardson told Obama, are “investment, public/private partnerships, green jobs, technology, broadband, climate change and research.”

“That is the Department of Commerce,” he said.

Richardson would head a Cabinet agency with responsibilities that include compiling economic data, monitoring the weather and adjudicating trade complaints.

Trade Barriers

Companies such as General Electric Co., the world’s biggest maker of power-generation equipment, said they will be looking to Richardson for help reducing hurdles and tariffs to selling their goods overseas.

Richardson is “very smart on things like free-trade agreements,” said Peter O’Toole, a GE spokesman and former speechwriter for Richardson. “Hopefully we can work with Governor and future Secretary Richardson on making sure that free and fair trade is a two-way street.”

Hispanics cheered the selection of one of their own for Obama’s cabinet. “We’re gratified,” Representative Charlie Gonzalez of Texas said. “Obama understands that Latinos bring in a certain perspective.”

Still, before the official announcement, top Latino lawmakers said they want Obama to appoint more Hispanics to high- level positions in his administration. Yesterday, some sent Obama’s transition office a letter recommending a slate of 14 Hispanics for the remaining eight Cabinet slots.

Lobbying for Representation

“We’d definitely be disappointed,” if Richardson were the lone Latino in Obama’s Cabinet, said California Representative Joe Baca, chairman of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus.

Representative Xavier Becerra has been offered the job of U.S. trade representative, a Cabinet-level job, two Democrats close to Obama’s transition office said.

Obama has moved quickly to fill out his Cabinet. At the start of this week he named his foreign and national security team with Clinton at state, current Defense Secretary Robert Gates remaining at the Pentagon and Arizona Governor Janet Napolitano as Homeland Security secretary. He also named former Justice Department official Eric Holder as attorney general.

Last week Obama named his economic team, led by New York Federal Reserve President Timothy Geithner as Treasury secretary.

Former South Dakota Senator Tom Daschle has accepted Obama’s offer to become Health and Human Services secretary, though the selection hasn’t been formally announced.

He has yet to fill the posts at the head of the departments of energy, housing and urban development, agriculture, education, labor, transportation, interior and veterans affairs and environmental protection agency administrator.

Cabinet secretaries are subject to Senate confirmation once they are formally nominated after Obama takes office on Jan. 20.

To contact the reporters on this story: Hans Nichols in Washington at hnichols2@bloomberg.net; Julianna Goldman in Chicago at jgoldman6@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: December 3, 2008 13:16 EST