Bush defends outsourcing of jobs

Friday, 12 March 2004, 20:30 IST
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WASHINGTON: US President George W. Bush has defended the phenomenon of outsourcing of jobs, dismissing isolationism as a recipe for economic disaster. The US "has moved beyond that tired, defeatist mindset and we're not going back", he said speaking at a Women's Entrepreneurship Forum in Cleveland, Ohio, Wednesday. "The United States and other countries need to pursue global economic growth by breaking down trade barriers rather than building a wall around themselves." Senator John Kerry, Bush's likely Democratic challenger in the 2004 presidential elections, and some congressmen, mostly Democrats, want to make outsourcing of US jobs more difficult. Bush, however, warned that economic isolationism would lead to "retaliation from abroad", and put many of jobs at risk. "America has got five percent of the world's population. That means 95 percent of potential customers are in other countries. We cannot expect to sell our goods and services and create jobs, if America and our partners, trading partners, start raising barriers and closing off markets," he said. When politicians in Washington attacked trade for political reasons, he said, they ignored the fact that some 6.4 million Americans drew their pay cheques from foreign companies. In order to create jobs in the US and prevent them from going overseas, the president said: "The government needs to improve its regulatory policy, reduce healthcare costs, discourage frivolous lawsuits, assure affordable and reliable supplies of energy, and create a stable tax environment." Later, at a conference on job outsourcing hosted here by the Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), a panel of experts said: "US job security is better served by expanding domestic training and education opportunities than by employing protectionist measures to prevent companies from transferring work to lower-wage markets." Assistant US Trade Representative Chris Padilla, addressing the conference, said "isolating America from the world is not the answer". The panellists at the CSIS conference, including Democratic Congressman Adam Smith of Washington state and representatives from business and academia, generally agreed that protectionism is the least advisable path to securing US job growth. The US Senate last week passed an amendment, seeking to restrict outsourcing of federal contracts to foreign workers. Some US states have moved to prohibit the outsourcing of state government work to India and other countries. "There is intense anxiety about jobs, and the anxiety is real," said former Clinton administration official Lael Brainard. "The feeling among US workers is that nobody is safe in the international economy." She predicted, however, that outsourcing is likely to increase, as overseas labour markets become more competitive. "We need to accept that we won't maintain an advantage in every single industry," she said. Congressman Smith said that much of the current outcry on outsourcing was based on "anecdotal" evidence and that the General Accounting Office (GAO) of Congress is in the process of compiling more reliable data. Smith called on the administration to crack down on countries that fail to live up to their commitments to open their markets. He cited India and China as examples of countries that are reaping the benefits of global trade but have not reciprocated by opening their own markets. "We need to use trade rules to our advantage," Smith said. US Trade Representative Robert Zoellick, in his testimony before the Senate Finance Committee Tuesday, had spoken in the same vein. Recalling a meeting with Indian officials, Zoellick said he had acknowledged that outsourcing was a "complicated" issue but also that India must accept its responsibilities under global trade rules. "If countries around the world that are emerging economic powers want to get the benefits of the system, they're going to have to contribute to the system," he said.
Source: IANS
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