President Obama is confident that he can drum up enough support in Congress to pass a sweeping trade agreement extending from the Pacific Rim to Latin America.
The president said Friday that congressional lawmakers will support the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), an agreement completed last week between the United States and 11 others nations, once they see the economic and geopolitical benefits.
{mosads}“I’m pretty confident I’ll be able to persuade a whole lot of people once they see the outlines of the deal, that it’s the right thing to do,” he said during a press conference with South Korean President Park Geun-hye.
Obama argued that the final deal meets his promise of producing an historic trade agreement that will make “sure we are upping our game in the Asia-Pacific region.”
South Korea is one of at least a handful of nations eager to join the TPP and Park said that the bilateral deal with the United States — ratified by Congress in 2011 — make the two nations “natural partners” for the TPP.
She said Seoul will consult with the 12 TPP nations about eventually participating in the agreement.
The president noted that the two leaders reviewed the first three years of the trade agreement that he said has led to an increase of U.S. exports, including American autos, between the United States and Korea, but “we still have work to do.”
He urged Korea to resolve outstanding implementation issues “quickly.”
The TPP deal faces an uncertain future in Congress with the majority of Democrats already opposed, a fact not helped by Hillary Clinton’s recent announcement that she is opposed to the pact.
The president and his trade team will have to sift through both parties for the votes they will need to pass the agreement in the House.
Congress could vote on the expansive pact early next year but there is some concern that TPP could get pushed until after the 2016 elections.
Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-Va.) said if a vote can’t get lined up within the few months of next year then it might be better to wait until the lame-duck session or face skittish lawmakers worried about summer primaries.
“There are a lot of us who put our necks on the line who don’t want this to be front and center in our campaigns if we can help it,” he said.
“What good does it do if you get all that done and you find yourself in June in the midst of everyone’s primaries and nominations and so forth and as a result you don’t have the votes,” he said.
Rep. Kevin Brady (R-Texas), a member of the Ways and Means Committee who supported fast-track, said he is a “proponent of passing this sooner rather than later.”