President Barack Obama speaks during a press conference in the White House on Aug. 2, 2016, in Washington. | Getty Obama predicts victory on TPP after election

President Barack Obama reiterated his strong support for the Trans-Pacific Partnership during a news conference with Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong on Tuesday, predicting his efforts to persuade Democrats and Republicans in Congress to pass the deal would ultimately be successful.

But that outlook is sharply at odds with those of congressional leaders, who have expressed little appetite for touching the deal amid the heated anti-TPP rhetoric of the presidential election campaigns or in the lame-duck session in the fall.


Obama acknowledged the anxieties caused by an increasingly globalized and technologically advanced world but said "the answer cannot be to back away from trade and the global economy."

"We are part of a global economy. We're not reversing that," Obama said, describing the necessity of an international supply chain and the importance of the export sector to jobs and the country's economic well-being. "The notion that we're going to pull that up root and branch is unrealistic."

The outlook for approving the Asia-Pacific trade deal before the end of the Obama administration has become increasingly grim, with both major-party presidential candidates standing against it and members of Congress expressing concerns about such aspects as intellectual property protections for biologic drugs and the ability of nations to stick to their commitments on the environment and labor.

Asked about how he planned to promote the deal given Hillary Clinton's and Donald Trump's opposition, Obama said: "Right now, I'm president, and I'm for it. And I think I've got the better argument."

When the dust settles after the election, Obama said he would like to sit down publicly with lawmakers from both sides of the aisle to discuss the "actual facts" behind the deal, rather than toss it around like a "political football."

The president compared the headwinds the TPP is now facing to the obstacles that "fast-track" legislation to expedite passage of the trade deal faced last summer. "Somehow we muddled through and got it done," he said. "And I intend to do the same with the actual agreement."

Lee, whose country is one of 12 in the pact, made a similarly impassioned plea for Congress to approve the deal, comparing its failure, if it happens, to a groom getting jilted at the altar by his prospective bride.

“If at the end, waiting at the altar, the bride doesn’t arrive, I think there are people who are going to be very hurt, not just emotionally but really damaged for a long time to come,” he said.

As Obama and Lee spoke, Trump put out his own release condemning the TPP, attaching clips highlighting Clinton's past support of the agreement under the headline: “Trump win is the only way to stop TPP catastrophe.” Clinton supported the trade deal while secretary of state but has since walked back that stance, citing negative effects on working families in America and benefits for pharmaceutical companies among her reasons for opposing it.