The chairman of the U.S. Senate committee responsible for trade said he will fight to keep lawmakers from adding tough rules against currency manipulation to legislation meant to ease passage of a Pacific trade pact. Orrin Hatch, the Utah Republican who heads the Senate Finance Committee, said he wanted the "fast-track" trade legislation to pass the full Senate in its original form. Some lawmakers want to add currency rules and another change that backers of the trade deal have dubbed a "poison pill". Hatch also aimed to strip out an amendment passed by the Senate panel which would disqualify trade deals with countries deemed soft on human trafficking from the special procedures designed to speed deals through Congress. The list of offending countries includes Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) member Malaysia. If it passes, the legislation would require to Congress to vote up or down on trade deals like the TPP, linking 12 nations from Japan to Chile. Without fast track in place, lawmakers would be able to amend the trade pact, possibly sending U.S. officials back to the negotiating table. "We are going to try to keep amendments out because what we have, basically I think would be accepted by these countries and would be accepted by the House (of Representatives) as well," Hatch said on the sidelines of a Politico event. Hatch said during the event it would be "catastrophic" if the TPP was scuttled because of a push to allow sanctions against trading partners who deliberately weaken their currencies to make their exports cheaper. He said currency concerns could be addressed in other ways. The U.S. Treasury has warned that such rules in the fast-track bill, which allows lawmakers to set negotiating objectives, could derail negotiations. Many lawmakers are angry about the impact of past currency interventions by TPP partner Japan and by China, although a bid to insert currency rules in the bill as it was being debated by the Senate committee failed. Republican Rob Portman, who is under pressure from Democrats over his support for free trade in his 2016 re-election campaign, is expected to push again for tough currency rules when the bill comes before the full Senate, likely in May. Hatch hoped no Republicans would vote against it simply because they oppose President Barack Obama, saying that would be "cheap politics." (Reuters)