Mixed reaction in Asia over US trade deal setback

Tokyo

THE failure of a package of trade-related measures on Friday in the US House of Representatives was a blow to President Barack Obama, but it was also a blow to his ally, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, half a world away.

Mr Abe has made reviving Japan's stubbornly anaemic economy one of his top priorities, and forging a wide-ranging trade pact with the United States, through the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), was a key part of that goal. For both countries, the TPP has been viewed as a way to counter a rising China.