Obama tells Canada he favors free trade

[February 20, 2009]  OTTAWA (AP) -- On his maiden voyage outside U.S. borders as president, Barack Obama sought to reassure free-trading Canadians that his country is not cultivating a protectionist streak as its economy tanks and hemorrhages jobs.

"I want to grow trade and not contract it," Obama declared Thursday during a quick visit to court warmer relations with America's snowy northern neighbor.

The president stuck to his pledge to eventually seek changes in the 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement to increase enforcement of labor and environmental standards. But he said he intends to do so in a way "that is not disruptive to the extraordinarily important trade relationships that exist between the United States and Canada."

His host, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, said he might be willing to negotiate but not by "opening the whole NAFTA and unraveling what is a very complex agreement." Canada is the United States' largest trading partner and with $1.5 billion in trade between the two nations, they have the largest trading relationship in the world.

Harper sounded a similar warning on a "Buy American" clause that Congress added to the $787 billion economic stimulus package that Obama signed this week. "We expect the United States to adhere to its international obligations," Harper said. "I can't emphasize how important it is that we do that."

Obama's seven-hour visit north of the border was marked by throngs of Obama-happy crowds and an eager welcome from Harper. The Conservative leader had been close to former President George W. Bush, personally and on policy. But he made clear with a few subtle jabs backward that he was casting his and his country's lot now with the vastly more popular Obama.

"As we all know, one of President Obama's big missions is to continue world leadership by the United States of America, but in a way that is more collaborative," Harper said, an apparent reference to Bush's go-it-alone diplomatic style.

He added: "We now have a partner on the North American continent that will provide leadership to the world on the climate change issue. And I think that's an important development."

Obama also delighted the Canadian public. Many spent hours on buses to come to the snowy capital in hopes of just a glimpse, and a large crowd outside Parliament erupted in a deafening cheer at the sight of only a brief wave from Obama. Likewise, he made shopkeepers happy with an impromptu stop at an indoor market to pick up pastries and souvenirs for his daughters.

Obama returned the feelings of good will.

"I love this country and think that we could not have a better friend and ally," he said at Harper's side inside Gothic Parliament Hill. He later slipped slightly as he walked to his plane and joked that the weather reminded him of his home in Chicago.

Niceties aside, differences between the two countries came into view. On trade as well as other topics, Obama came armed with reassurances, while Harper offered mini-lectures, albeit gently delivered.

On the 7-year-old Afghanistan war, for instance, the Canadian leader said that NATO and U.S. forces fighting a resurgent Taliban insurgency are not "through our own efforts going to establish peace and security in Afghanistan." With Obama's administration undertaking a broad review of the U.S. strategy there, Harper suggested that any new policy "have the idea of an end date, of a transition to Afghan responsibility for security, and to greater Western partnership for economic development."

[Associated Press; By JENNIFER LOVEN]

Associated Press writers Rob Gillies and Ben Feller contributed to this report.

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