Harper said it would be a big mistake to tear up the 14-year-old agreement between the United States, Canada and Mexico and put up new barriers to trade at a time when the world economy in crisis.
"It could be characterized that, while President Obama has expressed some concerns about some aspects of the working of NAFTA, I don't think his administration will question NAFTA in any fundamental way," he told reporters at a televised media conference in Vancouver .
The two governments should be able find common ground on promoting North American trade and keeping world markets open, he said.
"One of the great dangers in a global recession is that people start erecting trade walls or tariff walls. That is one of the things that turned the stock market crash of 1929 into a depression," he said.
Meanwhile, Harper said his government has no intention of funding cost overruns that have hit construction of the athletes village for the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver .
