(For other news from the Reuters Latin American Investment Summit, click on http://www.reuters.com/summit/LatinAmericanInvestment09?PID=500) (Adds quotes, background)
WASHINGTON, May 8 (Reuters) - The United States wants to expand trade ties with Latin America and is looking for Brazil to help bring long-running world trade talk to a close by offering deeper cuts in its manufacturing tariffs, U.S. Commerce Secretary Gary Locke said on Friday.
"We're looking forward to really developing an aggressive trade agenda, opening markets not just (in) the United States, but also two-way trade, because that's going to be key to the economic prosperity of the entire hemisphere," Locke told the Reuters Latin American Investment Summit.
Locke said the global economy may be turning the corner on the financial crisis that caused trade flows to plummet in the Western Hemisphere and around the world.
"I think clearly we're going to continue to feel the effects of the financial crisis on trade," Locke said. But "we are starting to see things bottoming out."
U.S. President Barack Obama had "great" meetings with Latin American leaders last month in Trinidad and is committed to passing trade agreements with Colombia and Panama negotiated under former President George W. Bush, Locke said.
But the key to persuading the Democratic-run U.S. Congress to approve the deals will be negotiating a set of "side agreements" to address outstanding concerns, he said.
The Obama administration is pressing Colombia to do more to reduce murders of trade unionists and to prosecute more people responsible for the crimes.
It wants Panama to reform tax-haven laws and do more to protect the rights of workers to organize and call strikes. (For summit blog: http://blogs.reuters.com/summits/)