U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter waded into economic policy Monday, urging Congress to grant the president negotiating authority for a proposed Asia-Pacific trade deal.

"Time is running out," Carter told an audience at Arizona State University in Tempe.

The U.S. and 11 other Asia-Pacific nations from Japan to Mexico are in the final stages of haggling over the Trans-Pacific Partnership. While the talks, which U.S. officials once hoped to conclude by the end of 2013, drag on, China and other countries have pursued rival trade accords.