Ron Kirk drums up support for trade pacts with Panama and Colombia. Trade Representative criss-crosses US

As a member of President Obama's Cabinet, US Trade Representative Ron Kirk has a big office in the Winder Building, a restored historic landmark designed in 1848.

But Kirk, a tall, slow-talking man with a Texas drawl, has spent most of the past year crisscrossing the United States, trying to explain to skeptical Americans why free trade agreements with foreign countries are in their best interest.

Kirk visited St. Paul, Minnesota, recently to explain why he hopes Congress will support trade agreements with South Korea, Colombia and Panama, as well as renewal of the Trade Adjustment Assistance Act, which provides government assistance to retrain workers displaced from their jobs by foreign trade.

Original source: Star Tribune