Mexico asks U.S. to resist temptation of protectionism

Mexican President Felipe Calderon urged the United States to avoid raising new barriers to international trade, arguing that a resurgence of global protectionism will only make the world economic crisis worse.

Pressure is growing on politicians around the world to protect local industries as an economic downturn hits workers.

"Putting up trade barriers, which is a big temptation in all economies ... would worsen the crisis," Calderon told Mexican television in an interview late on Saturday.

"If the United States falls into that temptation to raise new barriers to international trade, including barriers for Mexico, it will ... make it harder to emerge from the crisis," he said.

Mexico and the United States are major trading partners but are currently locked in a trade dispute that erupted this month after the United States canceled a program allowing Mexican truckers onto U.S. highways.

Mexico retaliated with new tariffs on everything from American strawberries to Christmas trees, arguing that Mexican truckers are allowed on U.S. highways under the North American Free Trade Agreement, or NAFTA.

Calderon, who is due to meet with U.S. President Barack Obama when the American leader visits Mexico in April, called the U.S. ban on Mexican truckers "absurd."

He suggested Washington was acting on behalf of the U.S. teamsters union.

Global trade relations will also be a topic of discussion at the G20 meetings in London next week, where leaders from major economies will hold talks to plot a pathway out of the world's worst economic crisis since the 1930s.

Calderon said he would push at the G20 talks for more resources for global financial institutions, like the International Monetary Fund. (Source:Reuters)