Complex US politics of trade will follow Obama to Asia

Vietnam is the first stop on a weeklong Obama trip designed to showcase the president's commitment to the Asia-Pacific region and to strengthen ties to fast-growing Asian economies in what Obama says is "an age of global supply chains, and cargo ships that crisscross oceans, and online commerce that can render borders obsolete."

Trump's denunciations of "stupid" U.S. trade deals that hurt U.S. workers have been a big selling point in his successful march to the brink of the GOP presidential nomination.

Sanders argues that international trade deals are set up to benefit corporate America at the expense of U.S. workers "forced to compete against people in Vietnam today making a minimum wage of 65 cents an hour."

Deputy national security adviser Ben Rhodes, taking note of the heated trade debate in the presidential race, says many other countries, too, are "wrestling with reactions to globalization and fears of further globalization."

The 12-nation trans-Pacific trade deal was signed last February but ratification by Congress remains in doubt, with the heated political climate making congressional leaders reluctant to take the matter up even in the lame-duck session after the November elections.