The Trans-Pacific Partnership does not have the votes to pass the House, according to Ways & Means Committee member Devin Nunes (R-CA), who on June 9 said the deal must be renegotiated. He also strongly signaled that TPP’s consideration in Congress may take place after the Obama administration leaves the White House, noting negotiations with the next president may be required to fix the agreement.
[Daily News| June 9, 2016 |Inside US Trade]
“But as it stands right now, [TPP] can’t pass the Congress because there’s not the votes. So the deal is going to have to be changed,” Nunes said at the Council on Foreign Relations. “And so we’re going to have to, as a Congress, work with whoever the next president is to make sure that this TPP deal ultimately gets done, but it’s a better deal for the American people at the same time.”
Nunes also accused the Obama administration of not putting enough effort into engaging members of Congress on the trade deal despite the White House’s recent unveiling of a potential fix to the carveout of financial services from TPP’s data localization ban. “I would just say that I serve on the Trade Committee and have worked on TPP for a long time, and clearly the administration dragged their feet. Finally, they got engaged in getting TPP moving forward,” he said.
Ryan did not mention TPP; nor does the House GOP report. However, Ryan did endorse a pro-free trade agenda — in line with the task force report — by relying on an argument often used by the Obama administration in support of TPP: that the trade agreement will allow the U.S. to set the trade norms of the 21st century, as opposed to other countries like China, whose interests may run counter to the United States’.
