TPP Approval May Become '2017 Issue,' Thune Says

Final approval of the Trans-Pacific Partnership may not happen for years, a member of the Republican Senate leadership told reporters Tuesday. The deal involves many provisions on telecom, data transfer rules and copyright. “There’s a pretty big school of thought this is not going to happen on this administration’s watch, that it’ll be a 2017 issue,” said Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., third-ranking member of GOP leadership and chairman of the Commerce Committee. “I think there are objections on both sides of the aisle, Republicans and Democrats, for very different reasons. But that’s going to make it I think fairly difficult to thread the needle. We have six years to do it, probably better sooner rather than later.” The trade deal involves several different nations, and the Obama administration released the text of many chapters last week (see 1511050058). President Barack Obama can sign the deal 90 days after the release. That signature would then set up a subsequent period of congressional review. Hillary Clinton and Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., the front-runners for the Democratic nomination, oppose the deal, as does real estate developer Donald Trump, vying for the GOP nomination. The digital economy is one of the two areas Thune is “most interested in,” he said, saying he and his staff will be “probably very focused on the digital economy” in addition to agriculture issues. He didn’t say how he would eventually vote when the deal comes before Congress. “If we’re going to do it, I think it’s always better to get these new provisions in place that open up access to a lot of our producers and businesses to markets that they don’t have access to today,” Thune said of potentially moving to enact the deal sooner rather than later.