PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad and Tobago, April 17 (Xinhua) — Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper on Friday played down the talk of the U.S.-Cuba relationship at the fifth Summit of the Americas here, saying the gathering should focus instead on economic issues.

“I think it’s important to hemispheric relations generally, but we certainly hope it doesn’t dominate the summit,” Harper told Fox News in an interview ahead of the summit that began Friday evening.

“There are much more important issues to discuss than Cuban-American relations,” he said.

The issue of Cuba, whose membership in the Organization of American States was suspended in 1962, will likely become a topic of discussion at the summit.

The Canadian prime minister said his country is “obviously worried about” moves to erect trade barriers worldwide, saying the biggest threat to the economy is an increase in protectionism because the increased protectionism would mean “recession or worse for a very long time.”

“We think it is very important, very important for the health of the hemisphere that we continue to bolster moves towards liberalized market economies and we need trade to do that,” Harper said.

Harper said it is the time for Havana to reciprocate in response to the goodwill moves taken by the Obama administration, including easing restrictions on family travel and remittances to Cuba.

The U.S. president on Monday announced easing restrictions on travel and money transfer to Cuba, and opening the green light to U.S. companies to explore the markets of telecommunications and satellite radio and TV services in the Caribbean country.

Although Obama stopped short of eliminating the U.S. trade embargo against Cuba imposed 47 years ago, it has been seen as a major policy shift from the Bush administration’s hawkish approach toward Cuba.

Tags: canadian, cuba, Stephan Harper