WASHINGTON, Nov 30 (Reuters) – The White House plans a “robust” trade agenda for the coming year to help fuel economic growth, including legislation to pursue a Trans-Pacific trade pact and to grant permanent normal trade relations to Russia, the top U.S. trade official said on Wednesday.

“We’re not going to leave any jobs on the table,” U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk said in a wide-ranging speech at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce on the benefits of negotiating new trade agreements and enforcing old pacts.

With public coffers drained by previous stimulus packages and constrained by mountains of national debt, “it’s no secret that governments around the world have embraced a robust trade policy as one the few tools open … to help spur economic growth and create jobs,” Kirk said.

“That’s one of the reasons that President (Barack) Obama has featured trade as a critical part of our overall economic strategy going forward.”

Kirk said the United States and eight other countries in the Asia Pacific were determined to reach agreement on a regional trade pact by the end of 2012, and were looking at ways to incorporate Japan, Mexico and Canada into the talks without jeopardizing that goal.

He also told reporters after the speech that the Obama administration has begun quiet discussions with congressional leaders to get “trade promotion authority” for the Trans-Pacific Partnership talks.

That legislation, which expired in mid-2007, is considered essential for U.S. trade talks because it allows the White House to negotiate agreements that can be submitted to Congress for a straight yes or no vote, without any amendments.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The United States and European Union agreed Tuesday to reduce red tape related to cargo security and pledged to work toward tearing down tariffs and regulatory barriers between the world’s largest trading partners.

“The leaders have asked to look at all aspects of our relationship and see what we can do to strengthen our economic ties and support good jobs and growth on both sides of the Atlantic,” White House international economics adviser Michael Froman told reporters at the end of the annual U.S.-EU Transatlantic Economic Council (TEC).

Those options range from simply expanding the TEC into new areas to negotiating a full-fledged free trade agreement, Froman said at the joint news conference with European Union Trade Commissioner Karel De Gucht.

“Everything is on the table, from tariffs to non-tariff barriers to enhanced regulatory cooperation,” Froman said.

De Gucht will co-chair the high-level working group announced Monday to examine where the two sides can tear down barriers to promote more trade.

U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk will lead the effort for the United States.

The initiative comes as economic growth remains weak on both sides of the Atlantic and the prolonged European debt crisis is raising fears of another recession.

WASHINGTON, Nov 29 (Reuters) – The European Union expects to sign a cargo security pact with the United States on Tuesday to help persuade the U.S. Congress to extend a deadline that threatens billions of dollars in transatlantic trade.

“I hope that we can reach an agreement on secure trade, which is economically very important,” European Union Trade Commissioner Karel De Gucht told Reuters on the eve of the U.S.-EU Transatlantic Economic Council (TEC) meeting.

“It would make away with a lot of red tape and it could also make away with the 100-percent container control legislation in the U.S.,” De Gucht said.

Congress passed legislation in 2007 requiring by mid-2012 that all ocean-borne cargo headed to the United States be screened for possible security threats.

The European Union and other trading partners have complained that the U.S. law is costly and inefficient and contend there are better ways to achieve the same objective.

U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano has also questioned the law’s practicality and pledged to ask Congress to delay its implementation.

“We see (the expected secure trade agreement) as a major argument in terms of postponing it,” De Gucht said.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The United States and the European Union took a step on Monday toward launching bilateral trade talks to help create jobs on both sides of the Atlantic by capitalizing on already strong economic ties.

“We must intensify our efforts to realize the untapped potential of transatlantic economic co-operation to generate new opportunities for jobs and growth,” the two sides said in a joint statement after a White House meeting between President Barack Obama, European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso and EU Council President Herman Van Rompuy.

“We are committed to making the EU-U.S. trade and investment relationship – already the largest and most integrated in the world – stronger,” they added.

Together, the United States and the EU account for about half of world economic output and nearly one-third of world trade. Two-way trade was up about 15 percent in the first nine months of 2011, despite a severe debt crisis in Europe that is crippling growth.

While countries around the world have been busily striking free trade deals for the past decade, the United States and the EU have steered clear of bilateral trade talks, partly because of concern it could sap energy from the long-running Doha round of world trade talks.

However, those negotiations will soon enter their 11th year with no clear end in sight.

The leaders’ statement directed EU Trade Commissioner Karel De Gucht and U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk to head a joint working group “to identify and assess options for strengthening the EU-U.S. economic relationship, especially those that have the highest potential to support jobs and growth.”

WASHINGTON, Nov 22 (Reuters) – After President Barack Obama’s commitment this month to a transpacific free trade agreement, business leaders in Europe and United States are asking for a similar initiative across the North Atlantic to spur economic growth and create jobs.

The private sector Transatlantic Business Dialogue wants Obama and European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso to agree when the two leaders meet on Monday to explore the idea of negotiating a “TransAtlantic Economic and Trade Pact.”

The advisory group includes U.S. corporate giants General Electric , Coca-Cola and Microsoft as well as European heavyweights Airbus , Siemens and ThyssenKrupp .

The business leaders also called on Obama and Barroso to tackle the “transatlantic debt crisis” with a plan to bring debts and deficits back to sustainable levels and to take a number of steps to promote innovation and green growth.

“Even though the president had a very successful trip to Asia and many of our member companies of course are invested in Asia … the transatlantic relationship is where the money is,” Kathryn Hauser, the group’s U.S. executive director for business organization, told Reuters on Tuesday.

Obama and leaders of eight other Asia Pacific economies announced this month in Honolulu they had agreed on the “broad outlines” of a deal to cut tariffs and other trade barriers and were committed to reaching a comprehensive final agreement.

Japan, Mexico and Canada also expressed interest in joining the talks on the Trans-Pacific Partnership pact, which now include the United States, Australia, New Zealand, Malaysia, Vietnam, Singapore, Brunei, Peru and Chile.

HONOLULU (Reuters) – Asia Pacific leaders, including the United States and China, committed on Sunday to slash tariffs on environmental goods and services in a bid to boost trade in products that cut fossil fuel use and reduce pollution.

The green trade initiative represented an achievement for U.S. President Barack Obama at the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Hawaii, overcoming reservations from China — a major manufacturer of solar power products.

A document issued by the leaders estimated that tens of trillions of dollars of investment would be required in the coming years to meet the region’s clean energy, clean air, sanitation and other environmental goals.

“We agreed to reduce tariffs on environmental goods and make it easier to export clean energy technologies that create jobs,” Obama said at the end of the APEC summit.

The pledge is a victory for Obama, whose administration pushed over the past year for a strong APEC “green growth” commitment. APEC economies account for about 60 percent of current trade in environmental goods and services.

Obama has touted solar, wind and other renewable energy technologies as a way to create jobs and boost economic growth. He suffered a setback in his administration’s decision to give solar panel maker Solyndra a $535 million loan guarantee that became an embarrassment after the company went bankrupt.

CHINA SIGNS UP

HONOLULU, Nov 13 (Reuters) – President Barack Obama served notice on Sunday that the United States was fed up with China’s trade and currency practices as he turned up the heat on America’s biggest economic rival.

“Enough’s enough,” Obama said bluntly at a closing news conference of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit where he scored a significant breakthrough in his push to create a pan-Pacific free trade zone and promote green technologies.

Using some of his toughest language yet against China, Obama, a day after face-to-face talks with President Hu Jintao, demanded that China stop “gaming” the international system and create a level playing field for U.S. and other foreign businesses.

“We’re going to continue to be firm that China operate by the same rules as everyone else,” Obama told reporters after hosting the 21-nation APEC summit in his native Honolulu. “We don’t want them taking advantage of the United States.”

China shot back that it refused to abide by international economic rules that it had no part in writing.

“First we have to know whose rules we are talking about,” Pang Sen, a deputy director-general at China’s Foreign Ministry said.

“If the rules are made collectively through agreement and China is a part of it, then China will abide by them. If rules are decided by one or even several countries, China does not have the obligation to abide by that.”

HONOLULU (Reuters) – Impatience with long-running world trade talks, and a desire to snap out of slow economic growth, explain why countries are flocking to a U.S.-led Asia-Pacific free trade agreement, New Zealand Trade Minister Tim Groser said on Sunday.

“It’s not just frustration with the WTO farce going on interminably and losing momentum. There’s a broader influence from concern about how we’re going to grow our economy and create jobs,” Groser said in an interview.

The Transpacific Partnership (TPP), a proposed free trade pact covering nine countries in the Asia Pacific, has picked up steam over the past several days, with Japan, Canada and Mexico all expressing interest in joining the talks.

President Barack Obama and other leaders of the nine TPP countries announced they had reached agreement on the broad outlines of a deal and were determined to move to a final agreement as rapidly as possible.

While the New Zealand minister said he was delighted by the three new applicants to TPP, it was “not realistic” to absorb them into the full talks and meet the 2012 deadline. Instead some political deal must be struck on how to include them.

The push for a regional trade deal comes as the Doha round of world trade talks, involving the 153 members of the World Trade Organization, are about to enter their 11th year with no end in sight.

WTO ministers will meet next month in Geneva, but Groser said he was pessimistic of significant progress there.

HONOLULU (Reuters) – Asia-Pacific leaders pledged Sunday to bolster their economies and lower trade barriers as they seek to prop up global growth and shield themselves against fallout from Europe’s debt crisis.

With U.S. President Barack Obama securing wider than expected agreement on the makings of a pan-Pacific trade pact, the 21 members of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit turned to the challenge of countering what they called “significant downside risks” to the world economy.

That followed an appeal by Obama, seeking to reassert U.S. leadership to counter China’s expanding influence around the Pacific Rim, for a commitment to expand trade opportunities as an antidote to Europe’s fiscal woes.

It is a “time of uncertainty” for the global economy, the summit’s final communique said, with growth and job creation weakened not only by the euro zone crisis but by natural disasters like Japan’s devastating earthquake and tsunami.

“These challenges have only strengthened our commitment to cooperation as the way forward,” the leaders said after talks in Honolulu. “We recognize that further trade liberalization is essential to achieving a sustainable global recovery in the aftermath of the global recession of 2008-2009.”

The communique expressed a firm resolve “to support the strong, sustained and balanced growth of the regional and global economy” — a clear reference to U.S. concerns about a huge trade deficit with China’s export-driven economy.

In another bow to U.S. pressure, APEC committed, albeit in somewhat vague terms, to reducing tariffs on environmental goods and services, even though China had resisted the idea. APEC also committed to support clean energy.

HONOLULU (Reuters) – Asia Pacific trade ministers on Friday said they were unable to agree on the terms of an initiative pushed by the United States to boost trade in clean energy and other environmentally friendly technologies.

“We advanced work to promote liberalization in trade and investment in environmental goods and services, and submitted the issue to APEC Leaders’ to consider how best to take this work forward,” the trade ministers said in a joint statement after a day of talks.

The United States is pushing the 21 members of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum to agree on a plan to help reduce greenhouse gas emissions blamed for global warming by capping tariffs on environmental goods at 5 percent.

It also wants members to pledge to reduce regulatory and other non-tariff barriers that thwart trade in the sector.

“Ministers had robust discussions and made progress today. But given the importance of the issue and its relevance to confronting today’s challenges, leaders want to have an opportunity to discuss it,” a U.S. official said.

China has complained the U.S. plan is too ambitious for developing countries, which generally have higher tariffs on environmental goods than the United States.

It also warned that a U.S. decision this week to investigate whether to slap duties on solar cells and modules from China could hurt cooperation on energy issues.