Governments around the world could impede the global economic recovery if they impose protectionist policies in hopes of creating domestic jobs, a top Australian official said Friday.

Now is the time to lower import barriers and reinforce the idea that free trade boosts economic growth, Australian Trade Minister Simon Crean said in an interview.

“At a time in which sustained global recovery is being called for, and the debate is going on between exit strategies for fiscal stimulus, trade is a stimulus that doesn’t cost the budget,” said Crean.

Crean made the comments at the Australian Ambassador’s residence here as part of a trip to Argentina, Brazil, Chile and Uruguay. He heads to Montevideo Sunday to participate a meeting of the Cairns Group.

The group’s 19 member nations hope to nudge the world closer to concluding the Doha round of global trade talks.

Trade ministers met in Doha, Qatar in 2001 and pledged to reduce tariffs and trade-distorting subsidies. But the talks have stalled repeatedly as developing and developed nations clash over how to achieve those goals.

“The worry, however, is that in the name of job creation, people will find it convenient to in fact embrace protectionist tendencies,” Crean said.

Crean cited the U.S. goal of increasing exports as a worthy aim but cautioned that the devil lies in the details of how such goals are achieved.

“The fact that the U.S. has said it wants to double exports is fine,” he said. “But there’s another part of that equation and that’s called imports. And you can’t really create the doubling of exports until you liberalize trade.” [Read More]