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MARKET DENIAL, NOT MARKET ACCESS, SAYS JAITLEY REACTING TO REPORTED US MOVE TO BAN OUTSOURCING
Date : 26 May 2003
Location : New Delhi
Shri Arun Jaitley, Union Minister of Commerce & Industry and Law & Justice, has said that while the buzzword in trade negotiations is market access, in reality it is "market denial" that developing countries have to face as reflected in the reported US move to ban outsourcing of government contracts. The Minister said this at the foundation stone laying ceremony of FIEO’s (Federation of the Indian Export Organisations) Niryat Bhawan here this morning, while reacting to a newspaper report which said that 4 US States – New Jersey, Connecticut, Maryland and Washington – were considering legislation to ban outsourcing of state data processing contracts to developing nations even as dozens of household names spanning insurance, banking, technology and telecom were transferring part of their white collar administrative and customer services work to Asia, particularly to India, in order to cut costs. Wondering at the phenomenon of back offices in Gurgaon posing a threat to the US, Shri Jaitley said that although the move, according to reports, was limited to government contracts, it would be a wrong signal in the context of multilateral trade negotiations which were aimed primarily at improving market access.
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