While both FedEx and and UPS disagree strongly on an number of issues involving labour law, the companies agree strongly on at least one hot-button issue - protectionism.

UPS CEO Scott Davis speaking at the Detroit Economic Club's National Summit yesterday said that global trade offered the best path to ending global recession. He decried protectionism as the principal threat to the global economy arising from the economic turmoil.

Davis also pointed out that the biggest declines associated from the downturn had already occurred.

UPS which is world's largest package delivery company, is considered a barometer of the economy as people ship more packages in a boom, while shipments fall when the economy fails.

He said that protectionism was the worst response at the worst time and political expediency cannot be allowed to cloud global reality.

Even as Davis was speaking at the summit, just across the Detroit River from where he spoke, the $787-billion economic stimulus package and its Buy American provisions continue to remain a consuming issue.

Last week the Canadian prime minister Stephen Harper urged the US to abandon the provisions. He said the US ran the risk of disqualification of US companies for infrastructure projects in Canada. He added that the biggest risk to global economic recovery was an increase in protectionist sentiment.

FedEx has also presented similar arguments and on a recent 'citizenship blog' on the FedEx website international president Mike Ducker noted that during a difficult economic period, world trade remains critical.

He wrote that while trade could be a polarising issue, both developed and developing countries stood to gain from expanding trade.

"We cannot let the current economic challenges blind us to the benefits that world trade will continue to provide," he said. "We must stand against those who would undermine and tear down a global economy."

The protectionist stance of the US administration has also come for criticism from World Bank President Robert Zoellick who termed the protectionist rules in the US economic package last week as "mistaken actions."