Obama Tells Canada He Favors Free Trade

By JENNIFER LOVEN | AP White House Correspondent

OTTAWA – 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.” …

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