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Mr Thomas J. Donohue, President & CEO, US Chamber of Commerce, with Mr Sunil Kant Munjal, Vice-President, CII, at a meeting on `India -US: The Emerging Trade Agenda' in the Capital on Tuesday. — Ramesh Sharma

New Delhi , April 20

VOCAL against the backlash being faced by Indian companies on the issue of business process outsourcing (BPO) in the US, the President and Chief Executive Officer of the US Chamber of Commerce, Mr Thomas J. Donohue, on Tuesday said that the chamber is leading the fight to preserve the "freedom and flexibility" of American companies to source and trade around the world.

"There is a backlash against BPO based not on facts but emotions and in some cases, on politics. We are leading the fight against it. It is good for the American economy and American jobs. We are pleased that India is in a position to benefit by providing these services. In fact, after an extensive investigation we discovered that no one really knows for sure how many service jobs have been moved to India and other countries," Mr Donohue said. The President of the US Chamber of Commerce was addressing captains of Indian industry at a luncheon meeting organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII).

Defending BPO, Mr Donohue added that it made good sense for many companies as they could turn their attention to invest in new products and create new and better jobs at home. The chamber President added that in the US, he always gave the example of what has happened in information technology. "The outsourcing of computer hardware manufacturing during the last decade lowered the price of IT. As a result, its infusion throughout the US economy and society increased rapidly, which made us more productive and created millions of new jobs in computer services. The same thing is now happening with the sourcing of some IT service jobs," Mr Donohue said.

While explaining the reason for his present visit to India, he said that one of the chief goals was to explore how India and the US can work together to fight counterfeiting and piracy in knowledge-based products that both countries produce.

"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," Mr Donohue said.

While emphasising that the chamber would be a leader in the fight to protect intellectual property and stop all forms of counterfeiting, Mr Donohue said that there were some steps which needed to be taken.

"We need to recognise the need for new rules and institutions. Besides, we need to assure that the rules for knowledge-based trade are as well defined as those governing the shipment of textiles or car parts. In addition, there is a need to make sure that other forms of movement be it of people, money or materials are made as free as the flow of bits and bytes," he said.

The chamber President, while acknowledging that trade between India and the US was growing, called for doing more to expand it further. Mr Donohue also announced the decision to organise a US-India Trade Development partnership.

"Our goal is to leverage existing Government resources in both countries through public-private cooperation to spur intensified trade cooperation. In a 12-month period, we hope to organise sufficient activity in the form of trade missions, video conferences and seminars, shared websites and other network-building devices to measurably accelerate bilateral trade cooperation," Mr Donohue said.

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