Senate Majority Leader Says Congress Won’t Debate Pacific Trade Pact This Year

Washington, DC newspaper The Hill reported last week that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) said Congress will not debate the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade pact this year. 

Sen. McConnell, who said the TPP has “serious flaws,” made the announcement at a Kentucky Farm Bureau breakfast. The majority leader wants changes made to the pact. He said, “It [the TPP] will still be around. It can be massaged, changed, worked on during the next administration.” According to The Hill, House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI) believes there are not enough votes to pass the TPP in the House. 

While MSCI supports free trade, for U.S. businesses and their workers to gain the full benefits of trade, FTAs with other countries must be fair. They must break down existing barriers to trade and ensure U.S. trading partners play by the same set of rules American manufacturers do. When it comes to the TPP, MSCI is concerned the pact does not address currency manipulation. Currency manipulation by other countries puts U.S. manufacturers at a competitive disadvantage globally, costing the United States jobs and lost economic growth. As economist Arthur Laffer has said, “The two-speed recovery has shown … that persistent currency undervaluation has benefitted the currency manipulators at the expense of countries allowing the flexible adjustment of exchange rates …” 

Visit MSCI’s policy agenda to learn more about our position on free trade. Want to know what the Republican and Democratic presidential candidates think about the TPP? Click here.