<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="100%" border=0><TBODY><TR>Obama's Cabinet line-up: A balancing act
</TR><!-- headline one : end --><TR>Free-trade advocate and staunch unionist round up his list of key appointees </TR><!-- Author --><TR><TD class="padlrt8 georgia11 darkgrey bold" colSpan=2>By Bhagyashree Garekar, US Correspondent
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US Correspondent Washington: US President-elect Barack Obama voiced his support for free trade but made it plain that it must benefit workers and protect the environment as he made the last of his Cabinet announcements before leaving for a Christmas vacation in Hawaii.
<TABLE width=200 align=left valign="top"><TBODY><TR><TD class=padr8><!-- Vodcast --><!-- Background Story --><STYLE type=text/css> #related .quote {background-color:#E7F7FF; padding:8px;margin:0px 0px 5px 0px;} #related .quote .headline {font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size:10px;font-weight:bold; border-bottom:3px double #007BFF; color:#036; text-transform:uppercase; padding-bottom:5px;} #related .quote .text {font-size:11px;color:#036;padding:5px 0px;} </STYLE>On the team
Hillary Clinton, Secretary of State
</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>Naming former Dallas mayor Ron Kirk, a free trade advocate, as the US Trade Representative and Congresswoman Hilda Solis, a staunch trade unionist, as his Labour Secretary, Mr Obama rounded up his carefully balanced Cabinet of moderate pragmatists and directed it to work towards the top priority of his administration - the creation of 2.5 million new jobs and revival of the economy.
Laying out his trade policy vision during a news conference in Chicago last Friday, Mr Obama insisted it must contain reciprocity of benefits and enforceable labour and environment standards.
'Any trade agreement we sign must be written not just with the interest of big corporations in mind, but with the interests of our whole nation and our workers at heart,' he said.
'If we are trading with a country and they are sending their goods into the United States, we better be able to sell American goods in their country as well,' he added.
The outcome, he said, should be 'labour and environmental agreements that are enforceable so we don't have a race to the bottom, but instead the standards of living of all workers are raised'.
On his choice of Mr Kirk, 54, as his chief trade negotiator, Mr Obama said: 'Ron helped steer one of the largest economies. He's seen the promise of trade, but also its pitfalls, and he knows there is nothing inconsistent about standing up for free trade and standing up for American workers.'
Mr Kirk promoted free trade as mayor (1995-2001) and backed the North American Free Trade Agreement (Nafta). His appointment is seen to ease concerns about Mr Obama's anti-trade campaign rhetoric.
Some analysts, however, see Ms Solis' presence as a counterpoint to Mr Kirk and as an indication that the Obama administration would not give trade the top billing it received under President George W. Bush.
Ms Solis, 51, a trade union favourite, has opposed Nafta and campaigned for a rise in minimum wages in her state of California.
Also last Friday, Mr Obama named former Congressman Ray LaHood, 63, as Secretary of Transportation, tasking him with crafting a '21st-century transportation system' that would contribute towards his administration's ambitious jobs creation plan.
With a month to go before his inauguration, Mr Obama has been swift in assembling his team. The line-up so far - including three Hispanics, two Asian-Americans and five women - has been praised by many observers for 'looking like America'.
He also avoided overtly antagonising either the conservatives or the liberals.
The selection is remarkable also for its heavy intelligence quotient - saturated as it is with the Ivy League-educated, administrators and academics.
Mr Obama yesterday named Dr John Holdren, a Harvard energy and climate specialist, as the new White House science adviser.
Two people picked to advise him on scientific issues are Dr Eric Lander, a founding director of the Broad Institute, a collaboration of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard University that focuses on mapping the human genome; and Dr Harold Varmus, who won a Nobel Prize for his studies on cancer and genetics.
Mr Obama had earlier named Dr Steven Chu, another Nobel laureate, in physics, to head the Energy Department.
'Today, more than ever before, science holds the key to our survival as a planet and our security and prosperity as a nation,' Mr Obama said in his weekly radio address. 'It's time we once again put science at the top of our agenda.'
In contrast with the Bush administration, representatives from business and industry are largely absent from Mr Obama's team.
Some sub-Cabinet appointments, like the Central Intelligence Agency chief, remain to be announced. [email protected]
</TR><!-- headline one : end --><TR>Free-trade advocate and staunch unionist round up his list of key appointees </TR><!-- Author --><TR><TD class="padlrt8 georgia11 darkgrey bold" colSpan=2>By Bhagyashree Garekar, US Correspondent
</TD></TR><!-- show image if available --></TBODY></TABLE>
<!-- START OF : div id="storytext"--><!-- more than 4 paragraphs -->
US Correspondent Washington: US President-elect Barack Obama voiced his support for free trade but made it plain that it must benefit workers and protect the environment as he made the last of his Cabinet announcements before leaving for a Christmas vacation in Hawaii.
<TABLE width=200 align=left valign="top"><TBODY><TR><TD class=padr8><!-- Vodcast --><!-- Background Story --><STYLE type=text/css> #related .quote {background-color:#E7F7FF; padding:8px;margin:0px 0px 5px 0px;} #related .quote .headline {font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size:10px;font-weight:bold; border-bottom:3px double #007BFF; color:#036; text-transform:uppercase; padding-bottom:5px;} #related .quote .text {font-size:11px;color:#036;padding:5px 0px;} </STYLE>On the team
Hillary Clinton, Secretary of State
</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>Naming former Dallas mayor Ron Kirk, a free trade advocate, as the US Trade Representative and Congresswoman Hilda Solis, a staunch trade unionist, as his Labour Secretary, Mr Obama rounded up his carefully balanced Cabinet of moderate pragmatists and directed it to work towards the top priority of his administration - the creation of 2.5 million new jobs and revival of the economy.
Laying out his trade policy vision during a news conference in Chicago last Friday, Mr Obama insisted it must contain reciprocity of benefits and enforceable labour and environment standards.
'Any trade agreement we sign must be written not just with the interest of big corporations in mind, but with the interests of our whole nation and our workers at heart,' he said.
'If we are trading with a country and they are sending their goods into the United States, we better be able to sell American goods in their country as well,' he added.
The outcome, he said, should be 'labour and environmental agreements that are enforceable so we don't have a race to the bottom, but instead the standards of living of all workers are raised'.
On his choice of Mr Kirk, 54, as his chief trade negotiator, Mr Obama said: 'Ron helped steer one of the largest economies. He's seen the promise of trade, but also its pitfalls, and he knows there is nothing inconsistent about standing up for free trade and standing up for American workers.'
Mr Kirk promoted free trade as mayor (1995-2001) and backed the North American Free Trade Agreement (Nafta). His appointment is seen to ease concerns about Mr Obama's anti-trade campaign rhetoric.
Some analysts, however, see Ms Solis' presence as a counterpoint to Mr Kirk and as an indication that the Obama administration would not give trade the top billing it received under President George W. Bush.
Ms Solis, 51, a trade union favourite, has opposed Nafta and campaigned for a rise in minimum wages in her state of California.
Also last Friday, Mr Obama named former Congressman Ray LaHood, 63, as Secretary of Transportation, tasking him with crafting a '21st-century transportation system' that would contribute towards his administration's ambitious jobs creation plan.
With a month to go before his inauguration, Mr Obama has been swift in assembling his team. The line-up so far - including three Hispanics, two Asian-Americans and five women - has been praised by many observers for 'looking like America'.
He also avoided overtly antagonising either the conservatives or the liberals.
The selection is remarkable also for its heavy intelligence quotient - saturated as it is with the Ivy League-educated, administrators and academics.
Mr Obama yesterday named Dr John Holdren, a Harvard energy and climate specialist, as the new White House science adviser.
Two people picked to advise him on scientific issues are Dr Eric Lander, a founding director of the Broad Institute, a collaboration of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard University that focuses on mapping the human genome; and Dr Harold Varmus, who won a Nobel Prize for his studies on cancer and genetics.
Mr Obama had earlier named Dr Steven Chu, another Nobel laureate, in physics, to head the Energy Department.
'Today, more than ever before, science holds the key to our survival as a planet and our security and prosperity as a nation,' Mr Obama said in his weekly radio address. 'It's time we once again put science at the top of our agenda.'
In contrast with the Bush administration, representatives from business and industry are largely absent from Mr Obama's team.
Some sub-Cabinet appointments, like the Central Intelligence Agency chief, remain to be announced. [email protected]
