Harper, other world leaders press U.S. at APEC summit

SINGAPORE -- Canada, China, Mexico and others are using a weekend meeting of Pacific Rim leaders to press the United States to reduce trade barriers it has thrown up in the wake of the global recession.

Chinese President Hu Jintao, who is rivalling U.S. President Barack Obama as the most influential political leader in the region, said protectionism could threaten a fragile economic recovery.

"We must continue to promote trade and investment liberalization and facilitation, and oppose protectionism in all its manifestations, particularly the unreasonable trade and investment restrictions imposed on developing countries," Hu said.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper has been pushing that message at various international leaders summits for more than a year.

"There are obviously things with China on which we don't agree, but when it comes to economics, China is a strong voice for opening up trade internationally," Harper said Saturday. "That's a strong position of the government of Canada to promote free trade and oppose protectionism."

In speech after speech on the first day of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit, one leader after another took to the podium to hammer the U.S. for its rising protectionist sentiment.

Mexican President Felipe Calderon criticized the United States for "going in the opposite sense of free trade" and singled out the U.S. Congress for championing "the old wrong idea of protectionism."

Calderon said U.S. protectionism was "killing North American companies."

China's Commerce Minister Chen Deming was less direct but it was not difficult to guess who he was referring to when he said so-called safeguard measures "by a certain large country" violated international trade agreements.

But while the recession and trade are the main issues preoccupying leaders here, climate change is also on the agenda. Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd will host a breakfast meeting Sunday for leaders to discuss such issues.

Harper, who will attend that meeting, has long argued that a new climate change deal will be ineffective unless China and India commit to greenhouse reductions.

"We're already close to half of global emissions coming from emerging economies. The future of that is going to be two-thirds. If we don't control those, whatever we do in the developed world will have no impact on climate change so it's important to include everyone," Harper said.

"Every leader and every country is trying to get an agreement that will be effective without imposing too heavy a burden on the economy that he or her is responsible for."