U.S. trade chief tries to allay lawmakers' worries

By Susan Cornwell

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The chief U.S. trade negotiator signalled on Wednesday he was in no hurry to rush pending trade pacts to Congress, saying it would not happen until the Obama administration was convinced the deals reflected its values on labour and the environment.

"We'll bring them up (for approval in Congress) when we get them to the point that they meet the criteria that the president has laid out for me of having trade deals that reflect our values on labour and the environment, that help us meet his objective, which is still getting America back to work and turning this economy around," U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk said.

Kirk spoke to reporters after he met for over an hour with about a half a dozen lawmakers who are deeply sceptical of proposed trade deals with Panama, Colombia and South Korea.

However, a U.S. trade official said Kirk was not suggesting reworking those deals, which were negotiated by the Bush administration.

WORKING WITHIN NEGOTIATED TEXTS

U.S. officials are working within the existing texts of the pending trade pacts to strengthen the labour and environmental standards, the trade official told Reuters, saying that no renegotiation is necessary. The deals will not take effect until they are ratified by Congress.

Democratic critics of U.S. trade policy say they do not want any more agreements along the lines of North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) with Canada and Mexico, which they blame for a loss of manufacturing jobs in the United States.

"We've had enough," is what the group told Kirk on Wednesday, according to Rep. Louise Slaughter, the chairwoman of the powerful House Rules Committee.