COEUR D’ALENE, ID — The Office of the United States Trade Representative’s chief agriculture negotiator Darci Vetter said here Aug. 2 that the Trans-Pacific Partnership implementing bill will largely consist of language to implement tariff cuts, and that Congress could pass it in as few as 10 days in a lame-duck session if there is sufficient support for the trade agreement.
[Daily News| August 2, 2016 |Inside US Trade]
Vetter noted that the timelines for congressional consideration of TPP laid out in the 2015 Trade Promotion Authority law are deadlines, and Congress is likely to move faster than what is required by it due to familiarity TPP as well as the fact that the implementing bill cannot be amended.
But such rapid action on TPP in a lame-duck session would require not only support for the agreement, but also commitments from leadership in the House and Senate, and the chambers’ respective trade committees, that the implementing bill would be quickly pushed through.
