President Barack Obama has tapped Miriam Sapiro to be a deputy U.S. trade representative. If confirmed by the Senate, Sapiro, 48, will be one of U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk’s three top policy officials. Along with fellow deputies Peter Allgeir and Demetrios Marantis, Sapiro will play an important role in shaping U.S. trade policies in the Obama administration.

But what role will that be? What policies? How does her professional experience fit in with the other senior members of Kirk’s top team? Sapiro, whose experience with trade issues is slim, is not well known in the Washington trade community (although two prominent Washington-based corporate lobbyists, Bob Vastine, who runs the Coalition of Service Industries; and Bill Lane, Caterpillar Inc.’s man in D.C., speak well of her).

At USTR, a Kirk spokeswoman referred all questions on Sapiro’s background to the White House, saying that she was not in a position to comment about a pending nomination. The White House was no more forthcoming. When he announced her nomination on April 14, Obama only offered a few skimpy details about Sapiro’s credentials. White House press aide Ben LaBolt declined to respond to a request for more detailed basic biographical information on Sapiro, or how she came to the attention of Obama’s political operatives.

A little digging quickly suggests the answer to the latter question. Sapiro has strong political connections to important figures in the Obama administration, stemming from her most recent experience as an important fundraiser for the Obama presidential campaign. But she is more than a fundraiser, having served in sensitive national security positions during the Clinton administration as a lawyer in the State Department and as a key operative on the National Security Council. That experience — including a stint as a backup to Richard Holbrooke and Jim Steinberg (now deputy secretary of state) in the 1995 Balkan peace negotiations — could be valuable as Sapiro turns her focus to the complex issues associated with international trade negotiations.

Let’s take a closer look.

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On April 3, newly sworn-in U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk announced his new senior staff members. Before taking a closer look at the credentials and backgrounds of the key men and women who will be helping formulate and implement the Obama administration’s international trade policies — including some telling details that the USTR didn’t include in his official press release — first briefly consider the overarching political context.

Talk about the permanent campaign. Kirk’s top team is heavy on political fundraising experience and campaign skills — so heavy in political talent that it looks like a future campaign-staff-in-waiting. Kirk, a former mayor of Dallas, ran for the U.S. Senate in 2002. And whether or not Kirk uses his new job as President Obama’s top trade negotiator as a personal political springboard, he and his team would seem to be positioned to advance an Obama reelection campaign in 2012. Last year, John McCain easily beat Obama in Texas, 56%-44%. Next time around, Texas Democrats like Kirk could hope to at least force the Republican opposition to divert money from other key battleground states to Texas — a red state rich in Electoral College votes that, the Democrats would hope, the Republicans could not afford to take for granted. And of course, the USTR can pick trade fights that will also play well in other politically important states (please forgive a crusty old reporter’s cynicism that would suggest such an agenda).

If Kirk is looking for a model on how a U.S. trade representative can use the office for maximum political advantage for a sitting president, Mickey Kantor showed how it can be done. Kantor played a lead role in the Clinton-Gore 1992 presidential campaign, and was then tapped by President Bill Clinton as his first U.S. trade negotiator. The politically astute USTR Kantor skillfully turned the resentments that the Detroit auto lobby had concerning its Japanese competition into a major political issue, threatening to slap 100% tariffs on Japanese autos. It was quite a fight — or at least, the appearance of quite a fight. By the time Kantor was done, Clinton was positioned to run for reelection in 1996 as a president who had the gumption to stand up to the “unfair” foreigners. It was a classic smoke-and-mirrors act, but one that worked politically. A grateful Clinton then promoted Kantor to be his next secretary of commerce.

While we wait for Kirk’s record to unfold, here’s the rundown of the new deputy U.S. trade cops who will play key roles in helping him set that record.

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Rep. Betty Sutton, a Democrat from economically depressed Northeast Ohio, has an idea that could help jump start the U.S. economy in an environmentally friendly manner. On March 17, the second-term congresswoman introduced legislation that would give consumers tax incentives ranging from $3,000 to $5,000 if they traded in their old gas guzzlers to buy new, more fuel-efficient cars. Sutton’s proposal is formally called the Consumer Assistance to Recycle and Save Act, but the lawmaker has a catchy acronym for it. “The CARS Act will achieve many goals: consumers will finally get a break to purchase more fuel-efficient vehicles; we will all benefit from a reduction of CO2; and the auto industry will get a jump start to spur sales,” Sutton said when she rolled out her proposal. Others call the idea, Cash for Clunkers.

With U.S. auto sales currently at a quarter century low, the idea of cash-for-clunkers has some important political supporters. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi likes the idea. Ford, Chrysler, and General Motors are backing it. GM’s chairman and CEO, Rick Wagoner, has said that Sutton’s idea could have a “huge impact.” Wagoner points to Germany, which has a similar program that is credited with helping boost auto sales there by some 15% to 25% last month (depending upon whose calculations one wishes to accept). The United Autoworkers union is also strongly behind Sutton. Sutton’s idea also seems to be generally well-received in the White House. While the Obama administration has not specifically endorsed the bill, Steven Rattner, who heads the president’s auto task force, has expressed interested in “working with Congress on a piece of legislation that would help incentivize buyers,” Michigan Republican Rep. Candice Miller has told reporters.

But there is one small problem Well, perhaps not so small. The cash-for-clunkers proposal is restricted to cars that are assembled in North America. Foreign-made imports are specifically excluded. Considering the current international political environment, where perceptions of rising U.S. protectionism are increasing, the well-intended cash-for-clunkers bill could be heading into an international legal- and economic firestorm.

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