大象传媒

President Barack Obama has said that he personally worked the phones to build support in the closing negotiations of the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal. In an exclusive interview with our partners at the US public radio programme Marketplace, he said he made calls to prime ministers and chief executives to get the agreement on creating the world's largest trade zone through. But he still faces a gamble to get the deal through the US congress. However he told Marketplace's Kai Ryssdal that he believes his hand is strong - claiming that if the United States doesn't take the lead in setting the rules of trade in the Pacific, then China would.

(Picture: President Obama Talks to Marketplace's Kai Ryssdal. Credit: WH Photo / Pete Souza)