Trade Rep. Ron Kirk on China: Can Trade Policy Spur Reform? June 28, 2010

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Complete Premium video at: http://fora.tv/series/monitor_breakfast

U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk explains the challenges of using trade policy to encourage government and market reforms in China.

To view more highlights from the Monitor Breakfast series, visit http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=6FD2D6DF3727DF9C

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At a Monitor Breakfast, US Trade Representative Ron Kirk discusses the President's trade policy agenda for 2010 and how he plans on achieving the President's ambitious goal of doubling exports in the next five years and creating two million trade-related jobs.

The plan, he says, includes completing the Doha Round of global trade liberalization, pushing Congress to pass pending free-trade agreements with Colombia, Panama and South Korea, and dealing with China's currency manipulation policy and other trade related practices. - The Monitor Breakfast

Ambassador Kirk is a native of Austin, Texas and received his bachelors degree from Austin College and his law degree from the University of Texas. He began his professional life in Washington as an aide to then-Senator Lloyd Bentsen. After returning to Texas, he joined the city attorney general's office in Dallas. Following a stint in private practice, Governor Ann Richards selected him to serve as Texas secretary of state. That was followed in 1995 by his election to two terms as Dallas mayor. He left city hall in 2001 to run for the Senate against John Cornyn. When the election was over, he joined the Dallas office of the law firm Vinson & Elkins in their public policy and finance division. At the time, he told a newspaper he knew "just enough about public finance to be dangerous." He was confirmed as United States Trade Representative in March 2009.