WASHINGTON — Prime Minister Stephen Harper had dinner tonight with President George W. Bush to kick off an international summit on the global economic meltdown, but his officials had already met with representatives of Washington’s real powerhouse — Barack Obama.
A Canadian contingent representing the federal government sat down earlier in the day with Madeleine Albright and Jim Leach, who are attending this weekend’s G20 meeting on Obama’s behalf.
It was the first face-to-face meeting between Canadian government officials and Obama representatives since the Illinois senator’s historic election on Nov. 4. Obama named Albright, a former secretary of state, and Leach, a one-time Republican congressman, his emissaries at the international economic summit.
A senior Harper official wouldn’t provide details on what was specifically discussed between the Canadians and Obama’s people other than to say their conversation centred on the G20 summit.
“It was a positive meeting,” he said. “We were able to articulate our position clearly, and we look forward to future discussions and meetings with the president-elect’s transition team as they move forward on their work.”
Canada is keen to advance one proposal in particular at the summit this weekend: an international “peer review” of every G20 country’s national financial regulations.
Before flying to Washington to dine with Bush and other heads of state at the White House tonight, Harper acknowledged the idea of a such a review is “the most contentious” issue on the table at the summit.
But the point, said the prime minister, is “not to impose solutions.”
“We want to respect national sovereignty. But that we get good, objective evaluations that we’re able to act on,” he said in Winnipeg. “We think that’s a reasonable part of being part of an integrated global financial market.”
He noted Canada has submitted to international peer reviews of its financial system in the past and “those comments and criticisms have been helpful in making reforms.”
Harper wasn’t the only international leader heading to the summit with big ideas on how to ease the global economic crisis.
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, elected 18 months ago, has been attempting to take D.C. by storm this week, meeting with leaders of Japan, Brazil and Australia and lunching with Alan Greenspan, the former Federal Reserve chairman. He reportedly sat down with Greenspan’s successor, Ben Bernanke, today in addition to the leaders of Russia and China.
Brown is calling for a super-regulator to monitor the world’s leading 30 banks, and he’s pushing for co-ordinated global tax cuts and interest rate cuts. He has said he wants the G20 summit to set a clear timetable for such reforms to begin.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy backs many of Brown’s proposals and is also calling for stronger regulation.
Bush, meanwhile, is warning against over-regulation and has been defending free-market capitalism as the final days of one of the most unpopular presidencies in U.S. history draws to a close.
Harper has been straddling a line between those two positions — while he is vocal in his defence of the free market, he’s also advocating more regulation of the world’s financial markets.
He twice referred to past policy mistakes that contributed to the Great Depression, noting that the repetition of those mistakes — unregulated financial markets and trade protectionism — threaten to exacerbate what he describes as a dire global financial crisis that has yet to bottom out.
“Unregulated financial markets do not work,” Harper, who’s been linked by his opponents to the Bush administration, bluntly stated.
“Canada has known that for a long time. I thought, frankly, we all knew that from events of many decades ago — but obviously the United States went on a different path.”
He also discussed the perils of international trade protectionism, which could be seen as an oblique criticism of president-elect Obama and his Democratic party.
“I think the worst possible thing we could do at this particular time would be to follow the problems we’re having in the economy with a series of measures that closed our economies or began to throw up protectionist trade barriers,” said Harper.
“I think that would be a devastating mistake. It would really repeat the errors of the 1930s.”
Obama campaigned in the Democratic primaries on a promise to reopen the North American Free Trade Agreement in order to protect U.S. jobs. But there was scant talk of NAFTA during the presidential campaign and many suggest it’s now a low priority for the new administration.
The G20 summit is the first in a series intended to deal with the enormity of the economic meltdown. The next meeting won’t be held until after Bush leaves office on Jan. 20.
Besides the United States, the countries represented will be Canada, Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Britain, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, South Korea and Turkey.
Those countries and the European Union make up the so-called G20.