<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html charset=utf-8"></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;" class=""><i class="">Two articles below...</i></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;" class=""><a href="http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2016/04/28/defense-chiefs-urge-congress-to-overcome-anti-trade-rhetoric-pass-pacific-trade-pact/" style="color: purple;" class="">http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2016/04/28/defense-chiefs-urge-congress-to-overcome-anti-trade-rhetoric-pass-pacific-trade-pact/</a><o:p class=""></o:p></div><h1 style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: 24pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;" class="">Defense Chiefs Urge Congress to Overcome Anti-Trade Rhetoric, Pass Pacific Trade Pact<o:p class=""></o:p></h1><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;" class=""><span class="name">William Mauldin</span><o:p class=""></o:p></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;" class="">Apr 28, 2016 6:08 pm ET </div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;" class=""><o:p class=""></o:p></div><p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;" class="">Defenders of President <a href="http://topics.wsj.com/person/O/barack,-obama/4328" style="color: purple;" class="">Barack Obama</a>’s Pacific trade agreement are taking out the big guns.<o:p class=""></o:p></p><p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;" class="">Eight former secretaries of defense signed a letter asking congressional leaders to pass the Trans-Pacific Partnership, or TPP, as a way to renew American leadership in the Pacific as China flexes its economic and military muscle.<o:p class=""></o:p></p><p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;" class="">Presidential candidates from <a href="http://topics.wsj.com/person/T/donald,-trump/159" style="color: purple;" class="">Donald Trump</a> to Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton have criticized the deal as potentially harmful for American manufacturing and more geared toward multinational companies than workers. The candidates have unleashed a groundswell of protectionist rhetoric on the right and left sides of the political spectrum, isolating pro-trade views in the Obama administration in Congress.<o:p class=""></o:p></p><p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;" class="">Signed in February, the agreement faces an uphill battle in Congress, even though lawmakers voted less than a year ago to give Mr. Obama special trade authority to finish the deal.<o:p class=""></o:p></p><p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;" class="">Mr. Obama’s economic team says the deal would perceptibly boost U.S. gross domestic product, but military leaders are backing it as a way to keep the peace in the Pacific by encouraging countries to exchange goods and services freely and resolve disputes through a rules-based trading system.<o:p class=""></o:p></p><p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;" class="">If ratified by the U.S., Japan and other countries in the 12-nation bloc, the agreement would eliminate most tariffs and set commercial rules of the road on everything from drug makers’ intellectual property to labor laws in Vietnam.<o:p class=""></o:p></p><p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;" class="">A failure to ratify the agreement would be a sign Washington can’t follow through with its strategic plans and potentially boost the status of Beijing, the former defense officials said.<o:p class=""></o:p></p><p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;" class="">“The last thing we should do is throw this country back to the ‘American first’ policies, and the isolationism, and the Smoot-Holley approach to trade of the 1930s,” former Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta said on a conference call. “I just don’t think you can lead the United States of America in the 21st century by ducking behind a wall and assuming, somehow, that you can provide the necessary leadership in a troubled world.”<o:p class=""></o:p></p><p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;" class="">The current defense secretary, Ash Carter, has compared the agreement to having an extra aircraft carrier in the region.<o:p class=""></o:p></p><p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;" class="">China is not in the trade deal but is currently helping lead negotiation on a separate pact known as the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, or RCEP, that doesn’t include Washington.<o:p class=""></o:p></p><p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;" class="">Critics of the TPP brush aside strategic arguments and say the deal should be sold on its economic merits. Labor unions have blamed trade agreements such as the North American Free Trade Agreement, or Nafta, for a slump in American manufacturing jobs.<o:p class=""></o:p></p><p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;" class="">Mr. Trump on Wednesday called Nafta and other U.S. arrangements a “total disaster” and said “there will be consequences for the companies that leave the United States, only to exploit it later.”<o:p class=""></o:p></p><p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;" class="">Backers of the TPP blame technology and the complicated forces of globalization for the manufacturing decline and see few additional factory job losses coming from the deal, which is set to boost to the technology sector, advanced services industries and many agricultural producers.<o:p class=""></o:p></p><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class=""><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;" class=""><a href="http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/f70471f764144b2fab526d39972d37b3/Article_2016-04-28-US--Trade-Defense%20Secretaries/id-e3672191e13e4b728e0fd94ffe6282d7" style="color: purple;" class="">http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/f70471f764144b2fab526d39972d37b3/Article_2016-04-28-US--Trade-Defense%20Secretaries/id-e3672191e13e4b728e0fd94ffe6282d7</a><o:p class=""></o:p></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;" class=""><span class="apdtstmp">Apr. 28, 2016</span><span class="updated"> </span><span class="aptmstmp">6:48 PM ET</span><br class=""><span class="aphead"><b class=""><span style="font-size: 20pt;" class="">Former defense secretaries push for trade pact</span></b></span><br class=""><span class="apby">By KEVIN FREKING</span><span class="apbytitle">, Associated Press</span> <a href="http://www.ap.org/newsvalues/index.html" title=""THE ASSOCIATED PRESS STATEMENT OF NEWS VALUES AND PRINCIPLES" " style="color: purple;" class=""><span style="text-decoration: none;" class=""><img apple-inline="yes" id="2A9C566A-C5C7-4B9D-BDF8-73EF54399F51" height="13" width="16" apple-width="yes" apple-height="yes" src="cid:image001.png@01D1A1FA.E361ABE0" class=""></span></a> <o:p class=""></o:p></div><p class="appara" style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="dateline"><span style="font-size: 11pt;" class="">WASHINGTON</span></span><span style="font-size: 11pt;" class=""> (AP) — Eight former secretaries of defense are pushing congressional leaders to back one of President Barack Obama's top priorities and pass a free trade agreement they say is fundamental to national security.<o:p class=""></o:p></span></p><p class="appara" style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;" class="">The bipartisan group has penned a letter stating that the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement will strengthen alliances with regional powers such as Japan and Singapore.<o:p class=""></o:p></span></p><p class="appara" style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;" class="">They also warn that a failure to ratify the agreement will result in a loss of credibility and let others, most likely China, set the rules for engagement in Asia.<o:p class=""></o:p></span></p><p class="appara" style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;" class="">The secretaries say the overall benefit to the economy and national security "cannot be overstated," though opponents argue the pact would harm U.S. jobs.<o:p class=""></o:p></span></p><p class="appara" style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;" class="">The former secretaries are Harold Brown, Frank Carlucci, William Perry, William Cohen, Donald Rumsfeld, Robert Gates, Leon Panetta and Chuck Hagel</span></p></div></body></html>