British P.M. calls for global ’New Deal’

Last Updated: Wednesday, March 4, 2009

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown told a joint session of the U.S. Congress that a spirit of international collaboration is the only remedy for the maladies affecting the global economy.

Calling the crisis an "economic hurricane" that has swept the world, the British leader took aim at countries with protectionist policies, saying such thinking would only exacerbate the problem.

"In these unprecedented times we must educate, invest, invent, retool and reskill our way out of the downturn," Brown said.

After alluding to the long tradition of co-operation between the United States and Britain, he took aim at lesser economic powers for their policies in the crisis.

"How much better would the world be if we outlawed shadowy banking systems and outlawed offshore tax havens," Brown said.

Brown’s remarks seemed directed at U.S. legislators who favour a more hands-off approach to dealing with the financial market’s troubles.

"Markets should be free, but markets should not be values free," Brown said to applause from the congressional audience.

There are members of Congress who support "Buy America" laws that restrict U.S. government purchases to domestic products as a way of kick-starting the American economy. But Brown said any protectionist instincts on trade must be resisted.

"We win our future not by withdrawing from the world, but by engaging with it ... [and] the rest of the world wants to work with America."

"Every continent stands ready to play its part in a global New Deal of prosperity for all," Brown said, invoking the name of former president Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s New Deal plan that is credited by some with pulling the United States out of the Great Depression.