Becerra Said to Be Offered Top U.S. Trade Position (Update1)

By Mark Drajem and Hans Nichols

Dec. 3 (Bloomberg) -- Representative Xavier Becerra, who once declared U.S. trade policy “broken completely,” has been offered the job of President-elect Barack Obama’s top trade official, two Democrats close to the transition office said.

As U.S. Trade Representative, the 50-year-old California Democrat would take part in global trade talks, negotiate with China on copyright theft and export subsidies and possibly renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement. The two people, interviewed last night, didn’t say Becerra had accepted the job.

Becerra, a member of the House Ways and Means Committee, which oversees trade policy, said in a 2005 interview that he regretted voting for Nafta in 1993. He cited the problems with the accord as a reason he helped lead the opposition to the Central American Free Trade Agreement that year.

He also voted against a free-trade agreement with Oman, using the example of the record U.S. trade deficit with China as a reason to oppose it.

“It’s become very obvious that our system for devising trade agreements, so very important to this country’s functioning around the world, has not only broken, but is broken completely,” Becerra said on the House floor, according to a statement from his office in July 2006.

Obama spokeswoman Jen Psaki had no comment.

‘Vice Chair’

Becerra’s spokeswoman, Fabiola Rodriguez, said today that the congressman “is vice chair of the Democratic caucus and that is what he is focusing his energies on now.”

Becerra voted for China’s entry into the World Trade Organization in 2000, a minority position among Democrats even though President Bill Clinton pushed for it. He also helped push for passage of a free-trade agreement between the U.S. and Peru last year after Democrats forced the Bush administration to renegotiate the pact and stiffen the labor protections.

The changes “give us a chance to vote on something that says that we will treat workers as well as we treat widgets,” Becerra said then. “The perfect should not get in the way of making progress.”

High Marks

Overall he has gotten high marks from pro-trade business groups such as the National Foreign Trade Council, which represents Boeing Co., Caterpillar Inc. and other large U.S. businesses.

“He’s been articulate in support of open markets” while also advocating tougher “labor and environmental provisions,” said William Reinsch, the NFTC’s president and a former trade official in the Clinton administration. “Within the confines of where the Democratic caucus is, he’s been good.”

Still, Becerra isn’t well-known internationally and has a promising legislative career that he would be sacrificing. He was elected vice chairman of the Democratic caucus last month and is a close ally of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

Becerra is the son of immigrants. He has both an undergraduate and law degree from Stanford University.

He would be the second Hispanic named to a Cabinet-rank post by Obama. Today New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson will be tapped for the post of commerce secretary, a Democratic official said.

Richardson is a former House member, and together the two would work as much to negotiate with lawmakers skeptical of new trade pacts as with foreign nations, analysts say.

“You need to be able to work with Congress,” Susan Aaronson, a professor at George Washington University, said. “Obama wants to send a signal to Congress that the trade policies he pursues will keep in mind the people who are being left behind.”

To contact the reporters on this story: Mark Drajem in Washington at mdrajem@bloomberg.net ; Hans Nichols in Washington at hnichols2@bloomberg.net .

Last Updated: December 3, 2008 10:20 EST

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