U.S. Defense Secretary Supports Trade Deal With Asia
By HELENE COOPER

TEMPE, Ariz. — Defense Secretary Ashton Carter on Monday threw the weight of the Pentagon behind President Obama’s fight to push a trade deal with Asia through Congress, warning that Asian markets are being gobbled up by global competitors.

Mr. Carter linked the military strength of the United States to its economic progress, using the start of his first trip as defense secretary to America’s Pacific allies to help the Obama administration in its efforts to push through the trade deal, known as the Trans-Pacific Partnership.

If the United States does not go through with the pact, a 12-nation accord that administration officials view as a linchpin for the Obama administration’s strategic pivot to Asia, “we are going to take ourselves out of the game,” Mr. Carter said during a speech at the McCain Institute at Arizona State University.

“Time is running out,” he said of the accord, which is still under negotiation but nearing completion. “We already see countries in the region trying to carve up these markets.”

For the Defense Department, it was an odd foray into the world of trade politics, which involve shifting alliances of high tech industries and big businesses in California and the Northeast versus the more traditional skeptics of wide-ranging trade agreements, including some labor unions and manufacturing states. But Mr. Carter appeared to relish it, claiming that “passing TPP is as important to me as another aircraft carrier.”

President Obama, representing a Democratic Party that has typically been wary of trade accords, has walked a fine line trying to satisfy enough members of his own base while also relying on Republicans, who tend to support the accords.

He is battling a rare alliance of liberal Democrats and Tea Party Republicans, while counting on more traditional opponents of his agenda like Representative Paul D. Ryan, Republican of Wisconsin, and Senator Orrin G. Hatch, Republican of Utah, to try to secure “fast track” trade promotion authority that would allow Congress to approve or reject the trade pact, but not to amend it.

Those are not the type of issues that people at the Pentagon talk about routinely. “As secretary of defense, I see our military personnel demonstrate every day that American men and women, American innovation and American hard work do not just compete, but outpace every other country in the world,” Mr. Carter said. “By passing trade promotion authority and finalizing a strong TPP, we will allow American workers to do the same.”

For Mr. Carter, the speech also had another benefit: He could throw his weight behind a cause supported by the man who may have almost as much influence as President Obama over his tenure as defense secretary — Senator John McCain, Republican of Arizona and chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee.

In his speech, Mr. Carter praised the Arizona senator’s support of improved ties to Asia.

“Twenty years ago, President Clinton was looking for congressional partners to help normalize relations with Vietnam,” Mr. Carter said. “Senator McCain had plenty of personal reasons to say no — especially after all he had endured there as a prisoner of war. But he realized that normalization would help our country move beyond a polarizing conflict and develop new ties with an important country in an increasingly important region.”

Mr. McCain did not attend the speech — he met briefly with Mr. Carter at the airport in Phoenix beforehand, but had other business to attend to, defense officials said. “Senator John McCain, who I just met with here in Phoenix, is an American hero,” Mr. Carter said after the meeting.

Whether Monday’s outreach to Mr. McCain will translate into an easier road for the Defense Department before the Armed Services Committee remains to be seen. Mr. McCain, as the ranking Republican on the Senate committee, was a frequent critic of Chuck Hagel, Mr. Carter’s predecessor at the Pentagon. Now, with the Republican takeover of the Senate, Mr. McCain has assumed the leadership of the committee and he has shown little willingness to make it easier for either the president or his defense secretary on matters of the American military.

The senator has challenged the administration on its strategy to fight the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, and more surprisingly, has lately thrown his weight behind Republican efforts to slow the pace of the transfers of detainees from the military prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, backing proposed legislation that would place a moratorium on the release of most of the remaining prisoners.

美國防部長大談TPP 被譏撈過界

美國國防部長卡特首度訪問亞洲前夕在亞利桑納州立大學演說，他表示，美國正透過投資高科技武器、更新美日防衛同盟、擴大貿易夥伴關係，展開「亞洲再平衡」政策的新階段。但他以國防部長身分，在演說中大談「跨太平洋夥伴協定（TPP）」應盡快通過，被紐約時報認為撈過界。

卡特六日在馬侃國際領導研究所演說時表示，成長的亞太對美國年輕人和美國是重大機遇，歐巴馬總統希望確保美國年輕人和美國勞工、企業可以成功爭取龐大亞洲中產階級市場商機，所以希望國會能提供「貿易促進授權」，協助政府談成TPP。

卡特說，如果美國無法促成TPP，「我們就是讓自己退出賽局」。他警告說，「時間正在流逝，我們已經看到區域中各國試圖攫取市場」。

國防部長公開大談貿易政策，紐約時報說，這算是一次「怪異的越界」。TPP在美國牽涉到許多利益團體的角力，科技業和汽車業對貿易開放的立場可能不同，東北各州也許傾向自由貿易，另一些地方反對，工會和製造業為主的各州也都對TPP有不同意見。但卡特似乎很愛這一味，他宣稱「對我來說，通過TPP就和另一艘航空母艦一樣重要」。

卡特七日晚間抵達日本，八日將和日本防衛大臣會面，九日轉往南韓訪問，回程到夏威夷太平艦隊司令部。他表示，訪問日本時，將努力完成新的「防衛合作大綱」；訪問南韓時，將強化嚇阻、因應北韓威脅的能力。

對於中國大陸，他說：「美國和中國不是盟友，但也不是敵手。美中之間的穩固建設性關係對世界安全與繁榮至為重要。我們繼續競爭又合作，關係複雜，但我們都認為，美中有機會更深入了解彼此、降低風險。」

原文參照：
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/07/us/politics/defense-secretary-supports-trade-deal-with-asia.html

紐約時報中文版翻譯：
http://cn.nytimes.com/world/20150407/c07military/zh-hant/

2015-04-08．聯合報．A13．國際．編譯組