The escalating anti-trade rhetoric emerging from the presidential election isn't striking any fear in the heart of President Barack Obama or decreasing his willingness to send the TPP to Congress for approval, Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker said in an interview with Pro Trade's Doug Palmer.

"This president is not intimidated and he's not afraid to act here," she said. "We have a process we have to go through first. We reviewed the process this week, so we could understand all the steps. This president is fully committed to TPP, as is our administration and, frankly, as is the business community."

Pritzker said she met with the CEOs and former CEOs of Caterpillar, Boeing and the Campbell Soup Company in recent days to talk about "the efforts their companies are going to make" as well as the efforts of the Business Roundtable, which Caterpillar CEO Doug Oberhelman chairs. She added that businesses are "raring to go" when it comes to pushing for TPP approval in Congress.