US not protectionist, PM reassured

NEW DELHI: US secretary of state Hillary Clinton on Monday assured Prime Minister Manmohan Singh that the US was not getting protectionist, even as concerns are rising in the government and among companies over recent policies of the Obama administration discouraging outsourcing.

According to the PMO sources said, the PM conveyed to Ms Clinton Indian business community concerns about the growing protectionism in the US. Ms Clinton insisted that the US did not have protectionist policies, these sources said.
The secretary of state has tried to repeatedly tried to assure Indian industry over the past two days that her government was not getting protectionist, although proposed changes to tax laws discourage outsourcing by taxing incomes earned overseas and plugging various loopholes in income tax codes.

The ���buy American��� plan, proposed earlier this year as part of the package by the Obama administration to stimulate growth in the world���s largest economy, was also seen as a protectionist move that had the potential to plunge the developing world, particularly trading partners of the US, deeper into an economic crisis.

Ms Clinton in her interviews to television channel had emphasised that President Obama did not want a return to protectionism when Congress passed the provision in the stimulus package.

Restrictions were placed on the number of foreign workers that could be hired by companies that received financial assistance from the government.

India on its part has maintained that the developed nations should not take recourse to protectionism as it would deepen the crisis, especially in developing countries.