Canada’s PM calls for more free trade in Latin America

PanARMENIAN.Net - Canada's Prime Minister on Thursday, April 12 called for more free trade in Latin America ahead of a meeting with regional leaders at a summit in Colombia this weekend, AFP reports.

"Given the fragile state of the global economy, it is imperative that real progress be achieved on trade and investment liberalization in the Americas and beyond," Prime Minister Stephen Harper said in a statement.

The sixth Summit of the Americas, which brings together leaders of the 34 members of the Organization of American States (OAS), is being held in Colombia's Caribbean resort city of Cartagena.

The April 14-15 meeting is to focus on regional integration as well as the fight against poverty. But a 50-year-old U.S. trade embargo on Cuba and the devastating effects of cocaine trafficking will also be high on the agenda.

On Cuba's exclusion from the summit, Harper's spokesman Andrew MacDougall told a briefing: "This is a meeting of democracies."

Cuba, which was expelled from the OAS in 1962 at the height of the Cold War, has never taken part in a summit of the Americas. The expulsion was rescinded in 2009, but Cuba has refused to return. To rejoin the group, Cuba's one-party communist regime would have to accept the OAS charter, which states that "representative democracy is indispensable for the stability, peace, and development of the region," and that one of the OAS's purposes "is to promote and consolidate representative democracy."

At the summit some Central American leaders, reeling from 20,000 murders linked to cocaine cartels in their region last year, plan to push for drug decriminalization. Ottawa, however, opposes decriminalization.

After the summit, Harper will stop in Chile, where he is expected to announce the renewal of his "Americas Strategy" launched in 2007 to boost trade and investment ties.

Meanwhile, according to Reuters, Canada has no desire to contribute to a bailout fund for Europe.

"I think the euro zone is of particular interest, obviously. That situation remains unresolved," MacDougall told reporters. "The biggest threat to the global recovery remains Europe."

Canada has said that Europe has enough resources of its own to deal with its economic troubles. In January, the International Monetary Fund said it would need an additional $500 billion to lend to deal with the euro zone crisis and another $100 billion for reserves.