US president Barack Obama’s hopes of agreeing a major trade agreement with 11 countries around the Pacific suffered defeat at the hands of his own party, as Democratic senators blocked a Bill that would give him fast-track authority to negotiate such deals.
There was a 52 to 45 vote on whether to consider the trade promotion authority Bill that would grant Mr Obama the power to agree trade deals, falling short of the required 60 votes to keep the Bill alive.
The vote is a major setback for the proposed US trade agreement with the EU, known as the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), that Washington and Brussels are negotiating.
Fast-track authority would allow the president to put trade agreements to a vote by Congress without amendments being attached.
Just one Democrat, senator Tom Carper of Delaware, voted to advance the trade promotion authority Bill pushed by the president.
In direct opposition to the White House, the remaining Senate Democrats complicated matters by tying the trade promotion authority Bill with three other pieces of legislation, including a measure to combat currency manipulation and assistance to workers hurt by trade agreements.
The inclusion of the currency manipulation provision is a measure that would draw a presidential veto, given the White House’s reluctance to designate China as a currency manipulator amid fears of a trade war.
Republicans agreed to the proposal to help workers who lost their jobs due to international competition but opposed the other measures.
Mitch McConnell, the Republican Senate majority leader, expressed frustration that the Senate could not even agree to debate the Bill.
“What we just saw here is pretty shocking,” he said immediately following the vote.
Mr McConnell also noted the president’s comments that the hard-left of his own party was “just making stuff up” about the trade deal.
Blamed on all sides More used to seeing his proposals defeated by Republicans, the president was blamed on all sides for the Democratic filibuster of the Bill.
“Ultimately, it’s up to the president,” said senator John Cornyn of Texas, the Senate’s second-highest ranking Republican.
"Does the president of the United States have enough clout with members of his own party?"
Mr Obama is trying to quell strong opposition from the Democratic Party’s left flank, including trade union core supporters, who fear the effect of international deals on American jobs.
He has vigorously defended trade deals against attack from senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, a favourite of the Democratic Party's liberal left, who claims that the deals will benefit Wall Street and hurt American workers.
“She is absolutely wrong,” Mr Obama said on Saturday.
