WASHINGTON, Nov 5 (Reuters) - The U.S. Congress should not wait a year before acting on the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade pact, a White House spokesman said on Thursday, the day President Barack Obama was expected to formally take the first step toward winning congressional approval for the deal.
Spokesman Josh Earnest also said the Obama administration would be "respectful of the need to give time" to Congress to consider details of the pact and that the president would work to build bipartisan agreement on it.
Obama was expected to notify Congress on Thursday he intends to sign the deal, which begins a 90-day clock for him to sign it. That, in turn, will trigger the next step in the process, and the earliest the TPP could come before Congress is March. urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL3N13054I