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http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/453424.cms

The Times of India Online 

Clinton, Gates back free trade
CHIDANAND RAJGHATTA

TIMES NEWS NETWORK[ THURSDAY, JANUARY 29, 2004 08:53:46 PM ]

WASHINGTON: Some of America's best minds - Bill Clinton, Alan
Greenspan, Bill Gates among others - have come out in support of free
trade and against protectionism, issues that affect outsourcing to
India.
 
Bill Gates 
 
They say fears of its impact on the US economy are unwarranted � and
largely exaggerated.

In the past few days, these heavyweights, in remarks at meetings in
Davos, London, Washington and elsewhere, have scoffed at the rising
hysteria in the US against outsourcing being fuelled by American
politicians facing re-election and pressure from their constituents
worried about near-term job loss.

Their message to the American workforce: Get used to the idea. Free
trade and one of its consequences, outsourcing, isn't going to stop.

At a conference in London earlier this week, Gates warned against
shutting out India and China from the development process, saying
"what is happening is fantastic for then."

He said that developing countries should instead think about what the
advantages are of migrating work to China and look at doing high-end
work in the US.

"If we are not realistic about what we are good at then there is a
chance of going backwards in the face of further competition...
Innovative companies need to look at which things they should do
offshore and what they should do at home," Gates said.
 
 
Alan Greenspan 
 
Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan had a similar message, warning
that the "consequences of moving in that direction (protectionism) in
today's far more globalised financial world could be unexpectedly
destabilising."

"Competition from abroad has risen to a point at which developed
countries' lowest skilled workers are being priced out of the global
labour market," Greenspan told the London meeting.

"The diminishing of opportunities for such workers is why retraining
for new job skills that meet the evolving opportunities created by our
economies has become so urgent a priority," he added.

 
Bill Clinton 
 
At Davos, former US president Bill Clinton rubbished the
anti-globalisation forces � including the social forum gathering in
Mumbai � saying "they are mourning for a past that never existed."

The explosion of growth in hi-tech had given India the largest middle
class in the world and if India resolved its internal problems, it
would grow faster than China in the next 20 years, he said.

Meanwhile, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan told the European Union
meeting to stop using migration as a scapegoat.

"Without migrants, many jobs that provide services and generate
revenue would go unfilled and many societies would age and shrink.
Migrants are part of the solution, not part of the problem," Annan old
EU lawmakers.

While these heavyweights have used broad strokes to defend free trade,
a range of commentaries, analysis and studies in the US suggest that
the anti-free trade brigade is hopelessly mistaken about its effect on
the American economy.
 
 
Kofi Annan 
 
One study data as recent as December 2003 indicates a 14 per cent
increase in business and financial occupations, a 6 per cent increase
in computer and mathematical jobs, and only a 2 per cent drop in
architecture and engineering jobs in the US.

New programming jobs may be springing up in India, but they are not
cancelling out job growth in the US, is the message from Dr Catherine
Mann of Institute of International Economics in Washington, who
authored the study.

A variety of other sources have in recent days sought to bring a
perspective to the outsourcing hysteria.

Wired , an edgy tech magazine, has the move to India as the subject of
its latest cover story and it, too, warns against exaggerating the
threat.

"It's not hard to see how outsourcing to India could lead to the next
great era in American enterprise. Today, even innovative firms spend
too much money maintaining products: fixing bugs and rolling out
nearly identical 2.0 versions," Wired editor-in-chief Chris Anderson
says in an editorial.

"Send the maintenance to India and, even after costs, 20 per cent of
the budget is freed up to come up with the next breakthrough app. The
result: more workers focused on real innovation. What comes after
services? Creativity."

For now though, "It's not a matter of blue collar versus white collar;
the collar to wear is Nehru," Anderson writes, much to the dismay of
US tech workers.

Anderson's commentary and articles in US tech magazines back the
assertions of industry leaders like Intel's Craig Barrett and H-P's
Carly Fiorina that the job shift to India is not only inevitable but
also in American interest.

"There is no job that is America's God-given right anymore," H-P chief
Carly Fiorina said recently in a remarks that outraged some Americans.
"We have to compete for jobs."

In so many words, that is also the message from Bill Clinton, Alan
Greenspan, Bill Gates and Kofi Annan.