US House blocks Obama trade agenda, for now

The US House of Representatives dealt a setback to President Barack Obama's ambitious trade agenda Friday, voting to block a measure giving him fast-track authority to conclude a trans-Pacific trade accord. The vote, in which some two thirds of the House opposed the so-called Trade Adjustment Assistance, was a stinging defeat for Obama, who personally came to Capitol Hill in an effort to get fellow Democrats on board with his trade plan. Immediately afterward, the House narrowly passed the