posted 20 years ago
Jason and I were having a discussion about this the other day. Frankly, you cannot have free trade and expect benefits too (not in all the cases).
If you want free trade then you have to eliminate the foreign worker program. Thats the way it works in most parts of the third world. India / China / Eastern Europe have very stringent immigration laws with little or no provision for foreign workers. This is understandable because they have higher umemployment rates and a larger human resource pool compared to western nations.
So, if the west wants free trade it has to eliminate H1B / L1, this would create jobs here because companies like Tata / Infosys etc. would be forced to hire Americans to do the onsite piece of work. A major chunk of work, I might add and also the best paying part.
Another alternative is for the government to impose quotas on companies. Example, take company ABCD, a big consumer of offshore labor. The government could impose a quota based upon how much revenue this company earns for the nation. If ABCD earns $5 million per year through exports then ABCD is entitled to import $1 million in software from offshore labor. This would allow companies to still utilize offshore labor and keep costs down without overusing / misusing the concept.
Commentary From the Sidelines of history