Obama giving away U.S. trade: Chamber

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama is giving away U.S. export sales to Canada and other competitors by failing to push for approval of trade deals with Colombia, Panama and South Korea, a business leader said on Tuesday.

The administration of former President George W. Bush signed free trade pacts with the three countries but the deals stalled amid opposition in Congress and from trade unions.

Canada later signed a free trade pact with Colombia, and the European Union penned a deal with South Korea last week.

"We're ceding market share," Bruce Josten, executive vice president at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, said at the Reuters Washington Summit.

"We don't have a trade agenda that I can find for this administration," said Josten, whose organization claims to be the world's largest business federation representing 3 million firms.

However, a top Democrat in the House of Representatives said he saw a chance for votes on the three trade deals after lawmakers finish healthcare and financial regulatory reform.

"There might be an opportunity to move forward" on a case-by case basis if concerns with the pacts are addressed," Representative Chris Van Hollen, chairman of Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, said at the Reuters Summit.

The recession makes it harder to win approval for trade deals as many Americans are out of work and others are worried about losing jobs, he said.

"If we move forward on any of these agreements, we need to emphasize the point that exports are an important part of recovery" and job creation, Van Hollen said.

On Monday, Republican Senator Charles Grassley told Reuters he would give Obama "an F" for failing to push the three trade agreements, which he argued would give the economy a much-needed jolt by increasing exports.

Josten said he'd give Obama an "incomplete" on trade, and urged him to quickly submit the Colombia and Panama free trade agreements to Congress.

He predicted both would easily pass, despite objections opponents still raise about the Colombia pact.

Three years after it was approved by Bush, the pact faces strong opposition from labor groups who say Colombian President Alvaro Uribe has not done enough to stop violence against trade unionists and prosecute those responsible for crimes.

Josten said U.S. wheat farmers, beef producers and other exporters would lose sales to Canadian rivals once Canada's Colombia free trade deal goes into effect.

U.S. free trade pacts with Panama and South Korea were signed in June 2007 by the Bush administration.

The European Union deal with South Korea has heightened U.S. industry concerns about White House trade policy.

The Panama deal is the least controversial of the three agreements. U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk recently said there had been progress addressing concerns Democrats raised about the country's labor rules and tax haven laws.

Korea is the biggest of the three free trade agreements and also the most difficult. The pact faces strong opposition from two of the Big Three U.S. automakers, Ford and Chrylser, as well as the United Auto Workers, Josten said.

They say the agreement fails to tear down "non-tariff barriers" that have long kept out American cars.

(Editing by Andrew Hay)