* Canada wants G20 to renew anti-protectionism pledge
* Previous Canadian government focused too much on Doha
* Canada watching Transpacific Partnership with interest
By Doug Palmer
WASHINGTON, April 23 (Reuters) - Canada wants the Group of 20 world leaders to again adopt a strong stance against protectionism when they meet in Toronto in June, Canadian Trade Minister Peter Van Loan said on Friday.
"We've made it quite clear that resisting protectionist tendencies is an enormous priority for Canada," Van Loan said, crediting previous G20 pledges to keep markets open for helping the world economy recover more strongly and quickly than was expected at the height of the global financial crisis.
Van Loan, who became Canada's trade minister in January, was in Washington for talks with U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk and the two agreed to meet at least twice a year to handle any bilateral trade concerns that might arise.
With a deal in the Doha round of world trade talks looking doubtful in 2010, Van Loan dodged questions on whether the leaders would recommit to finishing the talks this year or set a new goal for 2011 or beyond.
"There was a stock-taking exercise last month in Geneva in which all the countries participating assessed that success (in the Doha round) was not likely imminent, but we should continue with the process as best we could, and I think that summarizes it in a realistic way," Van Loan said.
Canada remains committed to the Doha negotiations, but "I think it was a significant mistake in the past, for whatever reasons, that the previous government put all the eggs in that basket," he told reporters.
He was referring to the Liberal Party government that ran Canada before Conservative Party leader Stephen Harper became prime minister in 2006.
"Other countries raced around with bilateral trade agreements, plurilateral trade agreements and Canada began to lose pace. We're not going to do the same thing this time," Van Loan said.
Canada has made up for lost time by striking bilateral trade deals with countries like Colombia and currently is negotiating a free trade agreement with the European Union, which Van Loan said would be "deeper and more comprehensive" than the North American Free Trade Agreement.
Ottawa also is "watching with interest" negotiations between the United States and seven other countries in the Asia Pacific on the proposed Transpacific Partnership agreement, which would be a regional free trade pact.
"We haven't yet come to a formal determination on whether we wish to participate," Van Loan said, refuting the suggestion that Canadian sensitivities on dairy or labor might bar it from joining the pact.
While the Transpacific Partnership is open to all 21 member economies of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation forum, U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk has said he wants the current eight partnership countries to reach an initial high-quality agreement before bringing other countries into the pact.
Van Loan, who met with Kirk on Thursday, said he believed the Transpacific Partnership countries were still discussing the architecture for the agreement and had not made a final decision on which country could participate in initial talks.
Other countries now in the Transpacific Partnership talks are Australia, New Zealand, Vietnam, Chile, Singapore, Peru and Brunei. The second round is set for mid-June in the United States.
(Reporting by Doug Palmer, editing by Stacey Joyce)