Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) said yesterday that the 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) should not be sent to Congress for approval until after the 2016 elections, delivering a significant blow to President Obama’s final legacy trade agenda.
McConnell supported granting President Obama fast-track authority on trade deals, but he has signaled that he was undecided on how he would vote on TPP, but he was clear that TPP would be defeated if it were sent to Capitol Hill next spring or summer, as the administration has said it plans to do.
“It certainly shouldn’t come before the election,” McConnell told The Washington Post in an interview. “I think the president would be making a big mistake to try to have that voted on during the election. There’s a significant pushback all over the place,” he said.
Already there is a slim margin of support in both the House and Senate for approval of TPP–the largest trade deal ever considered. The White House had hoped that the Republicans strong support of “fast-track” legislation would help ease the path for final ratification by forging a partnership between the president and the GOP in the face of fierce opposition from many Democratic lawmakers, labor unions, and environmental groups.
McConnell also indicated that the TPP may not get done before President Obama leaves office, noting that the next president will have the same fast-track authority granted to the president this summer. “The next president, whoever that is, will have the authority to either revise this one, if it doesn’t pass, or finish the European deal or other deals, and give Congress a chance to weigh in on it,” he said.
Senate Finance Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch (R-UT), who helped craft the fast-track legislation, has also raised concerns about the deal.
When Congress might receive the trade agreement is fluid. Many House Democrats that support TPP have said there is a small window within the first three months of the year where they would feel comfortable voting for the trade agreement. But if that does not happen, some lawmakers have indicated that there would be no harm in waiting until the pressure of the elections if off.
