Obama notifies Congress of intention to sign TPP agreement

U.S. President Barack Obama on Thursday notified Congress that he intended to sign the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), hours after the long-awaited text of the trade deal was released.

The release of the text came exactly one month after trade ministers of the United States and 11 other Pacific Rim countries reached an agreement on the TPP in Atlanta, the U.S. state of Georgia.

That would kick off a 90-day congressional review period that must elapse before the president formally signs the trade agreement, according to the trade promotion authority (TPA) legislation passed earlier this year.

In a letter sent to the Congress, Obama said he was pleased to notify lawmakers of his intention to enter into the TPP agreement.

The TPP will generate export opportunities, help create jobs in the United States, and help American consumers save money while offering them more choices, Obama said in the letter.

While the Obama administration has touted the Pacific trade deal as a means to create jobs and write the rules of international trade, labor unions, environmental groups, consumer and heath care organizations across the country have come out against it out of various concerns.

"From what we have reviewed so far, we are deeply disappointed that our policy recommendations and those of our trade reform allies in the environmental, consumer, public heath, global development and business sectors were largely ignored," powerful union AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka said Thursday.

"The hardworking families of the AFL-CIO will join with our allies to defeat the TPP," he said in a statement.

The newly-elected Speaker of the House of Representatives, Paul Ryan, reserved judgment, citing that he hadn't read the text of the agreement.

"I don't know the answer to what my position is on a trade agreement I have not even yet read, because we just got it this morning," Ryan said Thursday at a press briefing.

"We have a lot of work to do to review this agreement. And we do not rubber-stamp anything around here, let alone trade agreements," he said.

Before the release of the text, House Ways and Means Committee Ranking Member Sander Levin said, "The upcoming 90-day period was established to facilitate an intensive and informed debate over the merits of TPP as negotiated, as well as the necessity for any modifications to the agreement, before the agreement is signed."

"We are organizing a series of in-depth public hearings to assess the merits of the proposed agreement, zeroing in on those issues that are of particular importance or concern to us and our fellow Democratic colleagues," Levin said in a statement on Wednesday.

The earliest date for a final TPP vote in U.S. Congress would be in March 2016 when U.S. presidential election heats up, according to trade experts.

It's unclear whether the Obama administration could get enough votes to pass the controversial trade deal.

Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton said last month that she's "not in favor of" the TPP deal, noting that she doesn't believe the deal will meet her "high bar" for creating good American jobs, raising wages and advancing national security. Endit