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WASHINGTON, Jan 16 (Reuters) - The White House will have to step up efforts to build congressional support if it wants to win fast-track authority to enact free trade pacts, a senior Republican lawmaker said on Thursday.
Senator Orrin Hatch, who is co-sponsoring a bill to let the White House put trade deals before Congress for an up or down vote without amendments, said the initiative was doomed without more support from the Obama administration.
Hatch, the top Republican on the Senate Finance Committee, said he was disappointed U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman did not appear at a hearing the panel held on Thursday to discuss the fast-track bill, comments echoed by other members of the committee, which has jurisdiction over trade.
"If the administration does not get more involved in this effort to pass trade negotiating authority, we're not going to be successful," Hatch said.
"Put simply, this is not an issue where the president can lead from behind."
Fast-track power would reassure U.S. trading partners that deals such as those being negotiated with Pacific Rim countries and the European Union will not be picked apart in Congress.
But the bill faces a tricky passage, given many of President Barack Obama's Democrats are skeptical of trade deals and some Republicans, typically more aligned with free trade and business interests, may baulk at backing the bill for partisan reasons.
Several Democrats on the finance committee expressed doubts about the Trade Promotion Authority bill, known as TPA, which is also backed by the committee's Democratic chairman, Max Baucus, who has been nominated to be the next U.S. ambassador to China.
Democratic Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon, seen as likely to replace Baucus as chair, said he had been in touch with Representative Sander Levin, the top Democrat on the House committee responsible for trade, about TPA concerns.
Levin, along with some other Democrats, is working on an alternative bill with a bigger role for Congress and tougher restrictions on currency manipulation.
"I believe they are raising important issues," Wyden told reporters outside the hearing, although he declined to say what he would like to change in the bill. "What we need to do... is try to find policies that expand that winners' circle, create high-skill, high-wage jobs."
Trade experts worry that if the TPA does not pass before Baucus leaves for China, a Senate finance committee under new leadership might introduce changes that would slow its passage further.
This would complicate an already-tight timeframe for negotiating the so-called Trans-Pacific Partnership, a deal U.S. negotiators hope to wrap up in coming months.
Froman's office was not immediately available to comment, but the White House and the USTR have welcomed the TPA bill and have said they plan to work with Congress to secure the necessary bipartisan support to pass fast-track authority.
(Reporting by Krista Hughes; Editing by Dan Grebler)
((krista.hughes@thomsonreuters.com)(+1 202 354 5854)(Reuters Messaging: krista.hughes.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))
Keywords: USA TRADE/TPA