The Hindu : National : `Outsourcing good for U.S. economy'

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Apr 21, 2004

National

National

`Outsourcing good for U.S. economy'

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI, APRIL 20. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce today set the record straight in relation to business process outsourcing, asserting that the fears in the United States about outsourcing were ``misplaced.'' It found little hard data to support claims of an impending exodus of U.S. jobs overseas.

Interacting with captains of the Indian industry at a meeting organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), here today, Thomas J. Donahue, president & CEO, U.S. Chamber of Commerce, said that the backlash against outsourcing was based not on facts but on emotions, and in some cases, politics.

"The Chamber of Commerce of the U.S. is leading the fight to preserve for our companies the freedom and flexibility to source and trade around the world," Mr. Donahue said.

"Outsourcing is good for the American economy and American jobs and we are very pleased that India is in a position to benefit by providing these services."

In fact, he said, after extensive investigation, it was found that no one really knew how many service jobs had been moved to India and other countries.

"But we do know it makes good sense for many companies, who then can turn their attention to investing in new products and creating new and better jobs at home. It can strengthen companies' bottom lines, boost earnings and lift stock prices, which helps more than 50 per cent of the American households who now own stocks," Mr. Donahue said.

"We know that no matter how many jobs are moving out due to outsourcing, insourcing, along with America's openness to the world economy, creates many more jobs than those going out."

He said that one of the chief goals of his trip to India is to explore how India and the U.S. could work together to fight counterfeiting and piracy of knowledge-based products that both produce.

"I think India has a unique opportunity to boldly establish itself as a reform model in confronting the challenges of protecting intellectual property in an economic era where intellectual property counts for everything."

The CEO said that even the U.S. Chamber has launched a major initiative to stop global counterfeiting and theft of intellectual property. Therefore, it makes all the more sense to work together, he commented.

On the new trade initiative, he said that the U.S. would continue to fight for balanced policies that reject isolationism and leave companies free to grow stronger and more successful by trading and sourcing around the world.

He also said that India and the U.S. need to work together to revive the stalled trade-in services negotiations at WTO-GATS. India and the U.S. should strive to set a good example in bilateral service trade.

On the growing India-U.S. bilateral trade ties, which grew by 22 per cent, he said that what is most impressive is that with strong leadership from the U.S. foreign commercial service, U.S. exports by small and medium sized firms are on a world-beating pace.

Mr. Donahue, announced that the CII and the U.S. Chamber, working with the Chamber's Trade Roots national outreach programme and the US-India Business Council, have agreed to organise a special U.S.-India Trade Development Partnership in order to effectively share information, identify opportunities and learn from best practices, and build business networks.

"Our goal is to leverage existing government resources in both countries through public-private cooperation to spur intensified trade cooperation — that means close business deals — between the two countries," he said.

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