It's high time the US stopped blurting out poisonous rhetoric

US President Barack Obama must be desperate to push the Trans-Pacific Partnership through Congress during his remaining 10-plus months in office. "Our concern there was that China was the 800-pound gorilla, and if we allowed them to set trade rules out there, American businesses and American workers were going to be cut out," Obama said at the National Governors Association reception on Monday, in response to a US trade policy question raised by Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe.

That was part of the scare tactics Obama has been using for at least the past two years. He has been reiterating that, "we can't let countries like China write the rules of the global economy. We should write those rules".

Concluded on Oct 5 last year and signed on Feb 4 this year, the TPP is yet to be ratified by the legislatures of the 12 signatory countries. And it is facing stiff opposition from people across the social and political divide even in the US. In fact, many lawmakers in Obama's Democratic Party are opposed to the TPP.