奧巴馬請求貿易談判授權受挫

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.

美國參議院民主黨議員昨日非難巴拉克•奧巴馬(Barack Obama)，他們阻止了一份授權他達成一項太平洋週邊地區全面貿易協定的法案。該貿易協定處於奧巴馬第二任期經濟議程的中心。

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名民主黨議員爲阻止該法案而進行的程序性表決，並不意味着奧巴馬獲得快車道權限的努力以失敗告終。他需要這一授權來敲定與日本及其他10個亞洲和拉美經濟體之間的《跨太平洋夥伴關係》(Trans-Pacific Partnership，簡稱TPP)。

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

但是，這將增加美國談判夥伴日益加深的挫敗感。

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.

幾個月以來，它們一直等待華盛頓政界走完程序，以使它們可以敲定這個20年來最大的貿易協定。

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.

控制着參衆兩院的共和黨人在投票結束後表示，他們會尋求“替代路徑”，推進這個正式名稱爲“貿易促進權”(TPA)的法案。即便在投票前，白宮就已表示這是一個“程序混亂”，最終將被克服。

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的投票結果——少於“辯論結束”(cloture)所需的60張贊成票——表明，美國總統的貿易努力已在民主黨及工會運動（該黨的傳統根基）內部造成苦澀分歧。

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.

奧巴馬不得不在公開場合與民主黨內的領導成員表達不同意見，其中包括已成爲民主黨左翼實際領導人的馬薩諸塞州參議員伊麗莎白•沃倫(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.

即便奧巴馬得到了共和黨人的歡呼，但這似乎只是激起了民主黨人的更強烈反對。奧巴馬政府的這一最新挫折也使TPP面臨進一步延誤，此前美國及其夥伴國希望在今夏之前達成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.

談判代表們表示，他們需要做到這一點，才能讓美國國會有足夠時間在今年底之前（以及2016年總統競選活動升溫之前）批准TPP。