U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell on Wednesday dashed any remaining hopes that President Barack Obama's signature Pacific-Rim trade deal would come up for a vote before President-elect Donald Trump takes office in January.
"It's certainly not going to be brought up this year," McConnell said of the 12-country Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) at a news briefing in Washington.
McConnell said any decisions on the TPP or other future trade agreements would be up to Trump, who would still have the authority for four more years to negotiate "better deals" with expedited approval procedures in Congress.