Bye, bye TPP? Not so fast

Washington

IF you like a touch of black humour, then try this. The way that many policymakers and analysts see the prospects for getting the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade accord approved by Congress any time soon is recapped in this line: The TPP is now on death row.

The problem of trying to predict whether the historic trade deal among 12 Pacific Rim economies, including the United States, would sail through Congress this year, or perhaps in 2017, is the following: Many of the US lawmakers who are supposed to approve the agreement are not sure how they would vote if the TPP, as some expect, would be voted on by a lameduck Congress between the presidential and Congressional elections in November and the swearing in of a new president and House of Representatives early next year.