Philippines Worries About Offshoring Backlash

By 2015, 3.3 million white-collar jobs would have moved from the United States to India, the Philippines, Latin America and others.

The backlash has started to pit American workers and politicians against these countries. The Philippines risks becoming the enemy of the American worker.

Free trade in human capital has been one of the strong foundations of economic development. Economic theory, however, differs from practice.

The subject of “outsourcing” triggers not only images of 24-hour call centers in India and sounds of distinct accents, but also unemployed U.S. workers and mass layoffs. According to Forrester Research, in June 2003 alone, 30,000 jobs went to India.

Companies like Procter & Gamble, Citibank, Dell Computer, Delta Airlines, and American Express have moved more than 30,000 jobs to the Philippines.

Statistics like these make politicians salivate and displaced Americans angry. Both Democratic presidential candidates, John Kerry and John Edwards, swung against free trade.

Members of Congress have found it easier to take a protectionist agenda: Rep. Strickland (D-Ohio) introduced H.R. 3816, mandating disclosure of the location of call centers; Sen. Chris Dodd (D-CT) introduced the U.S. Workers Protection Act, which would prohibit states receiving federal funding from outsourcing any state government contract.

Twenty states have pending legislation that will ban offshore contracting. Multi-million-dollar lobbyists and labor unions have been working feverishly to pass these proposed laws.

Here to read more.