During an address in Brazil on his Latin American tour, Prime Minister Stephen Harper said business leaders and investors are putting too much emphasis on the turmoil currently engulfing world stock markets, instead of focusing on plans for reviving the global economy.
In a speech to business and political leaders in Sao Paolo, Brazil on Tuesday, Harper said that "it's too easy" to focus on the trillions that may have been lost on markets.
Policy makers should instead be focusing on "fundamentals" and "a clear, long-term strategy to create jobs and wealth," he said.
Harper added that leaders in Brazil and Canada need to concentrate on mid-term and longer-term opportunities "to create wealth, to create trade, to create enterprise, to create jobs."
"That is what is really important," he said.
"That's what we're doing, that's what we're doing here today and that's what we've got to continue doing, notwithstanding all the noise out there on international markets."
Harper is on a four-country tour of Latin America, seeking to expand trade opportunities with the countries.
In a lunchtime speech, Harper said he wants to get "friendlier" with Brazil when it comes to trade.
"Too much grass grows in the cracks on the road between our two great countries. It is time for increased ambition," the prime minister said. "That is why I am here today."
He noted that while Brazil is Canada's largest trading partner in South America, the two countries still did barely $6 billion in business last year, despite having combined GDPs of close to $4 trillion.
"When you do the math, total merchandise trade is still little more than one tenth of one per cent of our joint gross domestic product... For two friendly countries, I think we could be friendlier than that," he said.
Brazil is now the 7th-biggest economy in the world and is expected to become the world's fifth-largest economy in just a few years. In 2010, bilateral trade between Canada and Brazil reached $5.9 billion.
After Harper wraps up his visit in Sao Paulo, he heads to Colombia for the next leg of his Latin American swing.
