MRK Merck and Co Inc

The Obama administration is enlisting business leaders in a last-ditch effort to win Republican support for its signature Pacific trade agreement after the election.

A business-led advisory committee known as the President's Export Council is expected Wednesday to call on Congress to pass the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement in the "lame duck" session at the end of the year.

"We're calling for the passage of the TPP by the end of this year," said Ursula Burns, chief executive of Xerox Corp. and chair of the export council. "If we continue to try to search for this 'perfect deal,' we'll get nothing done."

Getting a majority of the House and Senate to back the 12-nation deal remains a high hurdle. GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump has made opposition to trade pacts a centerpiece of his campaign, and Democrat Hillary Clinton has moved toward firm opposition to the TPP, although she championed the TPP talks while secretary of state.

The opposition in the presidential race makes it almost impossible Congress will vote on the TPP before the election, but President Barack Obama and other officials eyeing the pact as a legacy are promoting the possibility of a 2016 vote after the election.

"A new administration comes in—it doesn't matter which one—trade is not going to be an immediate priority for the next couple of years," said United Parcel Service Inc. Chief Executive David Abney, a member of the council.

One of the administration's goals is to unify the business world as much as possible. Technology associations sent a letter Tuesday to congressional leaders backing passage of the TPP this year. But Detroit auto makers have withheld support for the deal, which would lower tariffs on Japanese rivals, while drugmakers are seeking assurances their intellectual property rights will be protected and future trade pacts for as long as possible.

Largely due to pharmaceutical industry concerns, business groups and key congressional Republicans were cool to the TPP when negotiations concluded in October.

Merck & Co. Chief Executive Kenneth Frazier, another member of Mr. Obama's export council, hasn't endorsed the TPP, and a spokeswoman for the company said that "it's crucial for the administration to work with Congress to effectively address the congressional concerns," including intellectual property protection for biologic drugs.

Since negotiations were concluded, Mr. Trump and Sen. Bernie Sanders, Mrs. Clinton's rival in the Democratic primary race, made opposition to the trade pact a key campaign message, complicating the choice for House and Senate lawmakers facing re-election bids this year.

Administration officials are using the negative trade politics to rally companies that support the deal—and those firms' GOP allies in Congress—to line up behind the TPP after the election, since the next president is unlikely to touch the pact in its current form.

"The president wants this done," said John Engler, the former Michigan Republican governor who is president of the Business Roundtable, a group comprising chief executives of leading U.S. firms. "He's got members of his party that he's talking to. We're talking to Democrats and Republicans about the importance of this," he told reporters Monday.

The Obama administration has at times had a difficult relationship with quite a few leading American firms, and some Republicans are following Mr. Trump's lead in distancing the party from big business groups. Small businesses, many of which could benefit from the TPP, are harder to reach and organize.

House Speaker Paul Ryan (R., Wis.) and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R., Ky.), hoping to keep GOP control of both chambers, have played down the outlook for a vote after the election, and people following the issue say the political environment for trade would have to improve quickly after the election to allow a vote.

"We're simply not there yet," said Sen. Orrin Hatch (R., Utah), Chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, which oversees trade. "Should the administration fully engage with members and actively work to address the substantive concerns that have been expressed, we'd have a real opportunity to advance a strong TPP that meets the high standards" that Congress set in trade legislation that narrowly passed last year.

The 2015 legislation, known as "fast track," allows for trade agreements to pass with a simple majority vote, with no amendments or procedural delays.

Meanwhile, the Obama administration's latest efforts haven't passed unnoticed among labor unions, environmental groups and other opponents.

"While the president is cloistered with corporate chieftains planning how to use a lame duck session to try to pass a TPP only they love, Congress' phones are ringing off the hook with anti-TPP calls," said Lori Wallach, senior trade expert at Public Citizen, a government watchdog organization.

Write to William Mauldin at william.mauldin@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

September 13, 2016 22:15 ET (02:15 GMT)

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