Obama to pick Ron Kirk as U.S. trade chief

By Doug Palmer

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President-elect Barack Obama will nominate former Dallas Mayor Ron Kirk to be U.S. trade representative, a Democratic official and another source familiar with decision said on Thursday.

Obama is expected to make the announcement on Friday in Chicago before leaving for a Christmas vacation in Hawaii.

Kirk, a partner in the Dallas office of the law firm Vinson and Elkins, has acknowledged having talks with Obama's transition team about a job in the new administration.

The Dallas Morning News reported on Thursday that Kirk had been calling friends to tell them he had the job.

Obama turned to Kirk, who is little known in Washington trade circles, after his first choice Rep. Xavier Becerra, a California Democrat and member of the House of Representatives Ways and Means Committee, turned down the job.

"My concern is how much weight this position would have had, and I reached the conclusion that it would not be a top priority or even a second or third priority," Becerra told La Opinion, a Los Angeles Spanish-language newspaper, in an interview earlier this week.

Becerra's comment increased already strong U.S. business concerns that long-time trade priorities like finishing the Doha round of world trade talks would be put on the back burner while Obama and Congress focus on restoring U.S. economic health and other domestic concerns.

Obama has already indicated that winning approval of two pending free trade agreements with Colombia and South Korea will not be top agenda items.