U.S. President Barack Obama's administration has suspended its efforts to win congressional approval for the Trans-Pacific Partnership before President-elect Donald Trump takes office, saying Friday that the fate of the free trade pact was up to Trump and Republican lawmakers.
Administration officials also said Obama would try to explain the situation to the leaders of the 11 other countries in the TPP next week when he attends a regional summit in Peru.
Obama's Cabinet secretaries and the U.S. Trade Representative's office had been lobbying lawmakers for months to pass the 12-country trade pact in the post-election, lame-duck session of Congress. However, Trump's stunning election victory that sends him to the White House in January and retains Republican majorities in Congress has stymied those plans.