LIMA, Peru - Prime Minister Stephen Harper said the current economic crisis could be as dangerous as the financial collapse that began in 1929 and the world must avoid repeating history by recognizing the Great Depression was caused by bad government policies.
Harper's remarks came as leaders at the Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation summit in Peru pledged Saturday to invoke a 12-month moratorium on new trade barriers in an effort to stabilize the present tumultuous global economy.
"The financial crisis has become an economic crisis, and the world is entering an economic period unlike, and potentially as dangerous, as anything we have faced since 1929," Harper said in an address.
The prime minister said policymakers back then erred in allowing their banking sector to contract. They let deflation take hold, attempted to balance government budgets when fiscal stimulus was needed, and closed doors to trade in an effort to protect jobs within their own boundaries, he said.
"Notwithstanding our current difficulties, the prosperity generated around the world in the last part of 20th century, and the beginning of the 21st century, has been unprecedented in history," Harper said.
"Removing protectionist barriers and easing trade restrictions was a big factor in ushering in this extraordinary era. ... We cannot allow ourselves to turn back."
Harper pledged Canada will remain open to international trade, touting the new free-trade agreement he signed with Colombia on Friday.
And he suggested the Canadian government would introduce a stimulus package to boost economic activity, although he said he will guard against creating the conditions for long-term government deficits.
Harper's remarks echoed a single page, six-paragraph APEC leaders' statement that calls for countries to pursue free trade as antidote to the international financial crisis.
"We reiterate our firm belief that free market principles, and open trade and investment regimes, will continue to drive global growth, employment and poverty reduction," the statement says.
"There is a risk that slower world growth could lead to calls for protectionist measures which would only exacerbate the current economic situation."
The APEC leaders' statement builds on a broad plan adopted last weekend in Washington by the Group of 20, which was aimed at combating the global economic meltdown that threatens to plunge the world into a deep recession.
The APEC statement goes further than the G20 resolution by promising not to raise new economic barriers to trade over the next year.
The APEC leaders, who together represent more than half the world's economy, also vowed to move ahead with global free-trade talks known as the Doha Round. The negotiations, which began seven years ago, have been stalled by disputes between developed and developing countries.
Meantime, in a conference call with reporters, International Trade Minister Stockwell Day said Canada's handling of the economic crisis is getting a lot of attention from other countries.
"I can tell you the PM is getting a lot of attention around here because it's in time of troubles that people say: 'What can we do? What is working?' and Canada has some things that are working," he said.
Earlier in the day, Harper met U.S. President George W. Bush in a bilateral session.
Harper and Bush spoke about the economic slump, the Detroit-Windsor bridge and Canada's concerns about new U.S. rules requiring meat and fresh produce to be labelled by country of origin, the Prime Minister's Office said.
The Canadian livestock industry says it is hurt by the U.S. labelling rules.
Bush called Harper a good friend and a strong leader, and said they had accomplished a lot together. The president said U.S.-Canada relations are "sometimes complicated," but strong nevertheless.
"I appreciate your candour, your character and your philosophy," Bush told Harper.
The prime minister said there were many things the two men had agreed on and a few they hadn't, but Bush was always willing to listen.
Harper offered a warm goodbye to the U.S. president in the event he doesn't see him before Jan. 20, when president-elect Barack Obama takes office - which Bush called his "forced retirement."
