President Obama championed the Trans-Pacific Partnership as a way to keep American businesses humming and promote global peace, before a receptive audience of corporate leaders and local economic development officials gathered in Washington on Monday for the Obama administration’s “Select USA” summit.

“Never before have we had such high-standard free trade agreements that level the playing field,” Obama said. When the Trans-Pacific Partnership is complete, it “will do even more to lower the cost of exporting, eliminating taxes and custom duties and raising intellectual property standards that protect data and ideas and jobs,” he said.