Baucus is Obama’s choice for China ambassadorship

WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama said Friday that he will nominate Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus to become ambassador to China.

If confirmed by the U.S. Senate, Baucus would replace Gary Locke at a time of tension and promise in the relationship between the world’s two largest economies. The Montana Democrat, who had already planned to leave Congress at the end of 2014, will work on promoting trade and addressing concerns about China’s territorial claims and protection of U.S. companies’ intellectual property.

“For more than two decades Max Baucus has worked to deepen the relationship between the United States and China,” Obama said. “The economic agreements he helped forge have created millions of American jobs and added billions of dollars to our economy, and he’s perfectly suited to build on that progress in his new role.”

In a statement Friday, Baucus, 72, said he was “humbled” by the nomination and would work to strengthen diplomatic and economic ties between the countries.

Baucus’ move will likely elevate Oregon Democrat Ron Wyden to the most important post in the Senate on tax, trade and health policy.

Obama said at a White House news conference Friday that Baucus’ departure wouldn’t change the president’s commitment to tax changes and that any progress would require bipartisan cooperation, not just one man’s work.

“My office is ready, willing and eager” to discuss making the tax system more fair and helping middle-class families, Obama said.

Baucus had announced this year that he wouldn’t seek re-election in 2014. At the time, he said being liberated from campaigning would let him focus on the tax system.

He traveled across the country promoting tax-code changes with his House Republican counterpart, Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dave Camp of Michigan, and released discussion drafts on four areas of tax policy.The most recent was unveiled hours before news of his probable departure from Congress.

In a statement Friday, Camp called Baucus an “instant Hall of Famer.”

“It is a great relief that Max is expected to be replaced by Ron Wyden, someone I’ve known for a long time and trust,” Camp said.

The leadership switch is expected to make lawmakers more intent on the retroactive extension of 55 tax breaks scheduled to lapse Dec. 31, including the research-and-development tax credit and the optional deduction for state sales taxes.

Wyden, now chairman of the Energy and Natural Resources Committee, said on the Senate floor Thursday that the House was “taking its foot off the gas” on major tax changes, making it more important for the temporary breaks to be extended, particularly those for renewable energy.

“The American people should not be left hanging,” he said.

Wyden is best known on tax policy for a 2010 plan to lower rates, limit corporate deductions for interest and make U.S. companies pay taxes immediately on their foreign income. To advance such a plan, he’ll have to deal with corporations and individuals opposed to losing long-held breaks.

“Individual tax reform sounds great on paper, and when you look at the tax expenditures about 85 percent of them are not so-called loopholes but broad-based - health-care benefits, retirement benefits, charitable deductions,” said Sen. Charles Schumer, a New York Democrat on the Finance Committee. “It’s easier to do corporate reform.”

Wyden’s elevation must await Baucus’ confirmation to the China post, along with Senate Democrats’ official decisions on the panel’s leadership.

Jay Rockefeller, a West Virginia Democrat and the Senate Commerce Committee chairman, has more seniority than Wyden on the finance panel, though he, too, is retiring at the end of 2014. Schumer, the No. 3 Democrat in the Senate, follows Wyden in panel seniority and said he won’t attempt to get in Wyden’s way.

Information for this article was contributed by Greg Giroux, Peter Cook, Kathleen Hunter and Laura Litvan of Bloomberg News.

Front Section, Pages 2 on 12/21/2013

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