Obama’s Top Trade Ambassador Blanks on APEC History
WASHINGTON 鈥斅燭he president’s top trade adviser touted the importance of the upcoming Honolulu-hosted Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Wednesday evening, but could not speak to the lessons learned from the United States’ most recent APEC-hosting experience.
It appeared that , the U.S. Trade Representative, was not aware that Seattle hosted the conference in 1993.
Asked by Civil Beat about the 1993 meeting in Seattle, Kirk confused the event with the notorious 1999 World Trade Organization Meetings in Seattle that were rocked by riots.
Kirk serves as Obama’s chief adviser, negotiator and spokesperson on trade issues. He was confirmed to his post in 2009. Kirk rose to political prominence as mayor of Dallas, Texas, in the mid-1990s.
Civil Beat approached Kirk after he appeared at a U.S. Chamber of Commerce event previewing APEC for business and government leaders on Wednesday night. Here’s a transcript of our brief interview with the ambassador:
Civil Beat: Looking at the last time that the United States hosted APEC, what lessons did you learn from Seattle that you’ll apply here? How does that inform your expectations about what will happen in Honolulu, what can be gained?
Ron Kirk: That was a (World Trade organization). That was, what 2000?
Civil Beat: APEC 1993.
Ron Kirk: No, that was a WTO.
Civil Beat: The last APEC hosted by the United States was in 1993. Can you talk about how that informs your expectations?
Ron Kirk: I’ll be honest, I hadn’t really played a lot on that. The biggest thing driving us, and what we’ve done 鈥斅爐he value of APEC, even though it’s a voluntary forum, it really, we’ve accomplished, if you look at the volume of trade in the region, we’ve done a lot.
This is a good group, and we realize it can be a laboratory for a lot of ideas and issues that we can address outside of the context of a (free trade agreement). What the president really most wanted to do 鈥斅爈et’s not try to solve all of the problems of the world, but let’s tackle three or four areas that we can make, and that’s why you’ve seen us structure focusing on those three areas of regulatory coherence, promoting green growth and what we can do to display supply-chain. So just being focused, being disciplined, and even though it’s voluntary, do it in a way that we know we’re going to promote the continued economic integration of the Asia-Pacifc. Thank you.
