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BPO: India worried over US move

June 02, 2005 18:08 IST

Alarmed by a US move to ban outsourcing of jobs, India has sought provisions in the World Trade Organisation that will check countries from stopping companies from offshoring jobs.

"We are very concerned (with the US proposal) because all these noises just keep coming," India's Commerce and Industry Minister Kamal Nath told reporters on the sidelines of a US-India Business Council conference in Washington on Wednesday.

He said New Delhi would like to put the issue of ban on outsourcing jobs "once and for all behind us."

Outsourcing and India: Complete Coverage

Reacting to concerns in the US on offshoring American jobs to low-cost destinations like India, Nath said: "Concerns about outsourcing are based more on emotions than economics."

His remarks on the outsourcing industry, which employs about nine lakh people in India, came in the wake of several American states proposing to bring legislation to ban outsourcing.

Besides Washington's silence about outsourcing in its offer before the WTO service negotiations to allow enhanced access to foreign companies in the US market, especially in sectors like telecommunication and IT, has also caused concern in New Delhi.

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