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U.S. House speaker says TPP doesn't have enough votes to pass Congress

Xinhua, September 9, 2016 Adjust font size:

U.S. House Speaker Paul Ryan said Thursday that the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement doesn't have enough votes to pass U.S. Congress this year.

"We don't have the votes right now," Ryan said of the 12-nation Pacific trade deal at a press briefing, adding that the Obama administration has to fix the agreement in order for the TPP to pass Congress.

"I think they've got to fix it, and they haven't done that," Ryan said. But he didn't specify which provisions in the TPP deal that must be renegotiated.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Finance Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch have signaled that provisions governing tobacco, pharmaceuticals and financial institutions in the agreement needs to be fixed to get enough support for the TPP.

Despite of these unresolved issues, the Obama administration continued to make a push for Congress to ratify the TPP during the so-called lame-duck session after the November general election, the final time window before he leaves the White House on Jan. 20.

But Ryan warned that any effort to get a vote on the TPP this year would fail. "If you bring it up, it's gonna go down. I don't think we should bring up a bill that goes down," he said.

The TPP deal involves Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, the United States and Vietnam. It was formally signed by ministers from these 12 countries in February after more than five years' negotiation.

The TPP now undergoes a two-year ratification period in which at least six countries, which account for 85 percent of the combined gross domestic production of the 12 TPP countries, must approve the final text for the deal to be implemented. Enditem