奥巴马请求贸易谈判授权受挫

Senate Democrats handed Barack Obama a rebuke yesterday, blocking a bill granting him the congressional authority he needs to close a sprawling Pacific Rim trade deal at the centre of his second-term economic agenda.

美国参议院民主党议员昨日非难巴拉克•奥巴马(Barack Obama)，他们阻止了一份授权他达成一项太平洋周边地区全面贸易协定的法案。该贸易协定处于奥巴马第二任期经济议程的中心。

The procedural vote to block the bill by 45 Democrats does not mark the end of Mr Obama’s push to gain the fast-track authority he needs to conclude the Trans-Pacific Partnership with Japan and 10 other Asian and Latin American economies.

45名民主党议员为阻止该法案而进行的程序性表决，并不意味着奥巴马获得快车道权限的努力以失败告终。他需要这一授权来敲定与日本及其他10个亚洲和拉美经济体之间的《跨太平洋伙伴关系》(Trans-Pacific Partnership，简称TPP)。

But it will contribute to increasing frustration among the US’s negotiating partners.

但是，这将增加美国谈判伙伴日益加深的挫败感。

For months they have been waiting for Washington politics to play out so they can conclude what would be the biggest trade pact in two decades.

几个月以来，它们一直等待华盛顿政界走完程序，以使它们可以敲定这个20年来最大的贸易协定。

Republicans, who control both Houses of Congress, said after the vote that they would seek “alternative paths forward” for the legislation formally known as Trade Promotion Authority. Even before the vote the White House called it a “procedural snafu” that would eventually be overcome.

控制着参众两院的共和党人在投票结束后表示，他们会寻求“替代路径”，推进这个正式名称为“贸易促进权”(TPA)的法案。即便在投票前，白宫就已表示这是一个“程序混乱”，最终将被克服。

But the 52-45 vote — short of the 60 votes needed for “cloture” — was a sign of the bitter divisions the president’s trade push has engendered in the Democratic party and among its traditional base in the union movement.

但是52：45的投票结果——少于“辩论结束”(cloture)所需的60张赞成票——表明，美国总统的贸易努力已在民主党及工会运动（该党的传统根基）内部造成苦涩分歧。

Mr Obama has been forced to take on in public leading members of his party including Elizabeth Warren, the Massachusetts senator who has become the de facto leader of the party’s left.

奥巴马不得不在公开场合与民主党内的领导成员表达不同意见，其中包括已成为民主党左翼实际领导人的马萨诸塞州参议员伊丽莎白•沃伦(Elizabeth Warren)。

Even as he has been cheered by Republicans, that strategy seems to have served only to energise opposition among Democrats. The latest setback for the administration also adds to the delays facing the TPP, which the US and its partners had hoped to close before the summer.

即便奥巴马得到了共和党人的欢呼，但这似乎只是激起了民主党人的更强烈反对。奥巴马政府的这一最新挫折也使TPP面临进一步延误，此前美国及其伙伴国希望在今夏之前达成TPP。

Negotiators say they need to do that to have enough time to get it ratified by Congress before the end of the year and before the 2016 presidential election campaigns heat up.

谈判代表们表示，他们需要做到这一点，才能让美国国会有足够时间在今年底之前（以及2016年总统竞选活动升温之前）批准TPP。