Bush, at Asia-Pacific summit, says free trade is key to recovery
The president, on his last scheduled foreign trip before leaving office, is in Peru for the annual APEC gathering of 21 nations. 'We refuse to accept protectionism in the 21st century,' he says.
Reporting from Lima, Peru — President Bush today called on nations to embrace free trade even as turmoil races through the world's markets, urging them to resist the temptation to resort to protectionism.
"One of the enduring lessons of the Great Depression is that global protectionism is a path to global economic ruin," Bush said at the annual summit of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum, representing 21 nations, including the United States, China, Japan and Russia. "We refuse to accept protectionism in the 21st century."
Bush, on his final scheduled foreign trip before stepping down from office, is seeking to bolster support for his plan to tame the global economic crisis. A week ago in Washington, he and other major world leaders backed a plan of economic stimulus mixed with improved oversight and regulation.
"Our nations must maintain confidence in the power of free markets," Bush told the gathered business executives from the Pacific Rim nations, which account for more than half of global economic output. "It's true the free-market system is not perfect. It can be subject to excesses and abuse. . . . Yet it is also essential that nations resist the temptation to over-correct by imposing regulations that would stifle innovation and choke off growth."
The president didn't have to twist many arms in this free-trade-friendly gathering, where a steady stream of chief executives spoke of the wonders of unfettered markets.
Chilean President Michelle Bachelet called renewed protectionism the "worst" that could happen, and representatives of Peru, China, South Korea and others urged nations to resist trade barriers.
Demonstrators who say that unrestricted free trade widens poverty have been kept well away from the heavily guarded military complex and hotels where summit events are taking place.
Critics here say Peru's robust growth, spurred by exports of minerals and other commodities, has not trickled down to the poor and working classes. That kind of criticism is one reason that Peruvian President Alan Garcia, a committed free-trader who is hosting the summit, has seen his popularity ratings plummet to around 20%.
Bush has long placed trade at the top of his economic priority list, boasting that Washington now has free-trade agreements with 14 nations -- compared with three when he took office nearly eight years ago. He said he was disappointed that Congress had adjourned without passing pending agreements with Colombia, Panama and South Korea.
In the case of Colombia, critics in Congress and elsewhere have cited the extrajudicial murders of labor leaders as impediments to the free-trade accord. President-elect Barack Obama has also noted the killings of labor leaders when asked about the stalled free-trade pact with Colombia.
After meeting here with Colombian President Alvaro Uribe, a staunch conservative on a continent where the left now holds sway in most nations, Bush defended his ally, saying, "Our Congress and our government must never turn our back on such a friend as Uribe."
McDonnell is a Times staff writer.
patrick.mcdonnell@latimes.com
