CHICAGO
The North American Free Trade Agreement, which President-elect Barack Obama frequently derided as a candidate, has yet to surface in his public remarks even as the Democrat named a new commerce secretary and prepared to select the chief trade negotiator.
Democratic sources said Rep. Xavier Becerra, California Democrat and a NAFTA critic, is the leading contender to be the U.S. trade representative.
“The selection suggests Obama is serious about reforming our trade policies, and it should be applauded,” wrote David Sirota in his blog at OpenLeft, calling Mr. Becerra a “solid choice” and “a huge change.”
Overseeing trade generally for the new administration will be Bill Richardson, the New Mexico governor and former presidential candidate whom Mr. Obama nominated Wednesday for commerce secretary.
But NAFTA - which both men said during the campaign must be renegotiated because it has cost thousands of American jobs - was not discussed.
The Obama transition office directed questions about whether the president-elect would renegotiate NAFTA to the campaign Web site statement.
The site notes Mr. Obama believes “NAFTA and its potential were oversold to the American people. [Mr. Obama and Vice President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr.] will work with the leaders of Canada and Mexico to fix NAFTA so that it works for American workers.”
During the heated primary campaign with Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, Mr. Obama frequently presented himself as an ardent opponent of NAFTA, passed during President Clinton’s first term, calling the deal “unfair” and promising to renegotiate it if he were elected.
“I think we should use the hammer of a potential opt-out as leverage to ensure that we actually get labor and environmental standards that are enforced,” Mr. Obama said in a February debate in Ohio.
Speaking to the AFL-CIO in Philadelphia in April, Mr. Obama said he would “refuse to accept” that the United States would have to sign trade deals that are “bad for American workers.”
Obama staffers suggested Mrs. Clinton was not as staunchly against NAFTA as she said on the campaign stump, and the two sparred via nasty mailers as senior Obama adviser Austan Goolsbee told the Canadian government not to worry about campaign rhetoric.
Still, his promise to renegotiate NAFTA was lauded, especially when Democrats courted blue-collar workers in Wisconsin, Ohio and Indiana. The talk lessened during Mr. Obama’s general election against Republican Sen. John McCain.
The word “trade” was not mentioned once Wednesday, though Mr. Richardson’s Commerce Department includes as fundamental to its mission “promoting and assisting international trade.”
Mr. Richardson said Wednesday he aims to create “millions of new jobs that can never be outsourced.”
“We will revitalize our nation’s historic strength in manufacturing, while restoring our position of respect in the world,” he said.
Mr. Becerra has said he regrets voting for NAFTA in 1993, but he opposed the Central American Free Trade Agreement and a trade deal with the Arab state of Oman.
When voting in support of the Peru trade deal in 2007, Mr. Becerra said it was the first time “in the history of this Congress” that “we will treat people as well as we treat products. We will protect our workers as well as we protect these widgets. That is something we have never done before on the floor of this House.”
A Becerra aide declined to comment but said a Politico report that her boss was meeting with Mr. Obama in Chicago was false; he was in his district office in Los Angeles.
Roger Salazar, a spokesman for the California Democratic Party, said he was excited by the expected nomination but believes Mr. Becerra’s own trade views are less important to the post.
“He will be an excellent negotiator on our country’s behalf when it comes to trade, but while any official who is appointed may come with his own perspectives, ultimately it’s what the boss decides,” he said.
When naming Mr. Richardson on Wednesday, Mr. Obama said he is well on his way to making his White House and Cabinet the most diverse in history.
A reporter from Telemundo in Chicago pressed Mr. Obama about Hispanics who feel Mr. Richardson was slighted with a “consolation prize” of commerce because he was not chosen for secretary of state.
Mr. Obama lauded Mr. Richardson as the right man for the job and added that he has only named half his Cabinet.
“I think that when people look back and see the entire slate, what they will say is - not only in terms of my Cabinet, but in terms of my White House staff - I think people are going to say, this is one of the most diverse Cabinets and White House staffs of all time,” he said.
So far, Mr. Obama has chosen Eric H. Holder Jr. to be the first black attorney general and several prominent black and Hispanic White House staffers. He has chosen three women - Mrs. Clinton as secretary of state, Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano to lead the Homeland Security Department, and Susan Rice as ambassador to the United Nations - for his Cabinet so far.
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