The Hindu : U.K. not to ban outsourcing: British MPs

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Feb 12, 2004

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U.K. not to ban outsourcing: British MPs

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI, FEB. 11. Despite growing resentment over outsourcing of British jobs to India, the U.K. Government is determined not to take any steps that might smack of protectionism. The leader of a delegation of British Labour Party parliamentarians, Dari Taylor, said here today that their Government had no intention of pushing for legislation to ban outsourcing in the manner of the U.S. administration.

There is considerable anger, she said, against the U.S. for slapping high import tariffs on British steel products to protect the failing American steel industry. These tariffs had hit British industry adversely and the U.K. was strongly opposed to such protectionist measures. The U.K. also sought to uphold the rules laid down by the World Trade Organisation (WTO) which needed to be respected by countries such as the U.S., she said.

Another member of the women MPs' delegation from the Labour Friends of India group, Diana Organ, said that high U.S. tariffs on British steel imports were "extremely short-term measures to protect inefficient loss-making steel plants in that country." She said it was being recognised even in that country by users of high quality steel products that shoring up inefficient manufacturers would be of little help in the long run. In fact, Ms. Taylor said, "we totally resist and resent the political manipulation of the Bush administration." Even so, she conceded that there was considerable resentment in the U.K. about the transfer of jobs to India. Efforts were being made to explain that in the long run it would contribute to better performance by corporates but loss of jobs was difficult to accept, she said. The British Government was looking at ways of developing value-added services to retain business instead of fighting the inevitable outsourcing.

At an interactive session organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry, Ms. Organ commended India's role in the Cancun ministerial conference by opposing efforts of developed countries to retain high food subsidies. Though it was not her Government's official line, she said India and Brazil had taken the moral high ground by not accepting the common agricultural policy and the resulting high subsidies on food of the European Union as well as the U.S.

Even within the E.U., she said, the U.K. was not in favour of keeping subsidies at such a high level but other members in the group had other views. But she said that with the entry of "agricultural powerhouses" such as Poland and Hungary into the E.U., the regional bloc might be forced to change its approach ultimately.

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