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"As long as we
don't have the votes, I see no point in bringing up an agreement
only to defeat it," Ryan, a Republican, said in an interview
with Wisconsin Public Radio.
Despite both U.S. presidential candidates bashing the 12-country
Pacific trade deal on the campaign trail, Obama administration
officials have pledged to make a major push in coming months to
persuade the Republican-majority Congress to pass TPP.
Backed by dozens of business and industry groups, officials from
the U.S. Commerce Department, the U.S. Trade Representative's
office and the White House say they are continuing to talk with
individual lawmakers about the merits of the deal, including its
consequences for U.S. leadership in Asia.
But Ryan said the Obama administration had negotiated a deal
that "cost them dozens of votes in Congress," and said the
Democratic president needed to renegotiate some components. The
speaker said some agricultural and labor provisions needed
fixing, and he also believed the deal would reduce intellectual
property rights for biologic drugs and pharmaceuticals.
For U.S. drugmakers the deal could reduce the patent protection
period to eight years from the current 12. Senator Orrin Hatch,
the influential Republican chairman of the Senate Finance
Committee, has also raised this as a major problem with the
deal.
"They have to fix this agreement and renegotiate some pieces of
it if they have any hope or chance of passing it," Ryan said in
the radio interview, but added that he was doubtful this could
happen. "I don't see how they'll ever get the votes for it."
(Reporting by Susan Cornwell; Editing by Jonathan Oatis and
Sandra Maler)
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