Trans-Pacific Partnership Treaty May Not Have the Votes to PassBy Joshua Krause Despite the fact that the establishment has been able to keep this treacherous agreement secret for several years, the public is now becoming fully aware of it. You can almost feel their anxiety as support for it slowly evaporates. Theyre clearly worried about the success of their treaty, and it shows. The US Senate is currently slated to vote on a bill that would allow Obama to fast-track the treaty, thus preventing Congress from amending the agreement at a later date. These corporations want this treaty set in stone now, before it loses even more support. However, it may be too late for them. While there is a lot of support for TPP in the halls of government, it may not be enough, and there appears to be growing fear and resentment over the treaty that crosses party lines. Orrin Hatch, the Republican from Utah and the Senates generalissimo on the TPP question, gave a revealing interview to the Financial Times over the weekend. If Obama doesnt get more Democrats behind fast-track very, very quickly, Part 1 of this undertaking is instantly in doubt. As Hatch explained, at the moment there are too many Tea Party defectors on the right side of the aisle and too few Democrats willing to vote the bill forward. He seemed to suggest that it would be easier for Obama to cajole Democrats to get behind fast track than it would be to budge the Tea Party resisters. Thats interesting by itself. Democrats are in for a rolling barrage of anti-TPP protest from constituencieslabor, the greens, civil society groups, the progressive wingthat matter at election time. If Democratic lawmakers are the best bet to push through fast track, the only word weve got for this is, Whoa! And thats only one roadblock this treaty needs to overcome. The TPP is international in scope, which means it needs the support of all nations involved if it wants to have any teeth. But it looks like the TPP is facing even more resistance in Japan than it is in the United States. The Japanese leader couldnt even deliver on imports of autos and farm products during his talks with Obama last week. These were stale, intractable trade issues when I arrived in Tokyo as a correspondent in 1987. We havent yet got even this stuff off the table? The TPPs outlook in Japan is upside down from ours. U.S. corporations are thoroughly behind the pacthaving helped write many parts of it, after all. But big Japanese blue chipsmakers of cars, consumer electronics, and machineryare the core of the export sector and see nothing in the TPP other than unwelcome competition. Flip this over and you have the weak side of Japan: rice and produce farmers and underdeveloped industrial sectors such as drugs and financial services. Long the beneficiaries of protectionist regulation (and generous supporters of the governing Liberal Democrats), these constituencies are also against the TPPthe farmers very vigorously. Now you can hear Abes message to Obama for what it was: Hes very unlikely to deliver on the TPPand whether he cant or doesnt want to is among the interesting questions he left behind last week. Well have to see which it is. The US appears to have plenty of corporate support while lacking the enthusiasm of the legislative branch, while Japan has these roles reversed. If the two largest economies in this treaty are struggling to convince their politicians and corporations to go along with it, then it may be dead in the water. Good riddance. Joshua Krause is a reporter, writer and researcher at The Daily Sheeple, where this article first appeared. He was born and raised in the Bay Area and is a freelance writer and author. You can follow Joshuas reports at Facebook or on his personal Twitter. Joshuas website is Strange Danger. 