WRAPUP 3-Obama makes pitch to win support for Pacific trade pact

(Adds comment from White House)
By Krista Hughes and Roberta Rampton
WASHINGTON, Oct 6 (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama
kicked off a sales pitch on Tuesday for a 12-nation Pacific Rim
trade agreement, urging farmers to push their lawmakers to
approve what he said would boost their sales in a fast-growing
region.
Although ultimate winners and losers from the Trans-Pacific
Partnership (TPP) are still unclear, some Republicans are
worried about its impact on industries including dairy, tobacco
and pharmaceuticals, highlighting the battle ahead to win votes.
Obama was upbeat about winning support in the
Republican-controlled Congress for the pact, which was announced
early Monday.
"Ultimately we're going to get this done, and it will be an
enormous achievement for us to be able to make sure that 40
percent of the world's economy is operating under rules that
don't hurt us," Obama told agricultural and business leaders
gathered at the U.S. Agriculture Department.
The White House said it was the first in a series of public
appearances for Obama on the issue. He needs to garner enough
support from Republicans to overcome skepticism from members of
his own party.
Early reaction from lawmakers was not encouraging, although
they stressed they were waiting on details.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell saw "a number of
troubling parts" in the deal, and Senate Finance Committee
Chairman Orrin Hatch said the administration could lose "quite a
few" Republican votes.
Hatch said it was a mistake that U.S. negotiators had not
secured a minimum 12-year monopoly for the manufacturers of
next-generation biological drugs and held out the option of
trying to re-open the deal.
North Carolina Senator Richard Burr who, like McConnell,
comes from a tobacco-growing state was upset by rules targeting
tobacco companies' ability to take legal action over
anti-smoking laws.
"I'd say they are going to come up woefully short (of votes)
based on the (agricultural) community," he said.
Farmers and key business groups have yet to give their
verdict on the deal.
But Obama spoke directly to farmers in a radio program
carried on almost 400 stations in the U.S. Midwest, pledging the
deal would be a "boon" for selling more beef in Japan and
Vietnam. He asked for help selling the TPP to lawmakers.
"I think that if the agricultural community is strong and
pushing on this issue, that will be an enormous, enormous base
from which we can get this thing passed," Obama said in the
interview with Brownfield Ag News.
"Make sure that you push Congress hard because this is a
generational deal that you don't want to pass up," he said.
Lawmakers from manufacturing regions hit by past free trade
deals also have concerns. Ohio Senator Rob Portman, a former
U.S. trade representative, criticized a lack of "teeth" in
preventing countries from devaluing their currencies to make
their exports cheaper.
Obama said in an interview with radio show Marketplace that
it was a good starting point that TPP countries agreed on a set
of principles on how to measure currency manipulation.