Outsourcing Debate Turns Spicy for Powell
By Cynthia L. Webb
washingtonpost.com Staff Writer
Wednesday, March 17, 2004; 10:01 AM
Pleasing everyone is an impossible task, no matter how noble the cause. That doesn't stop most of us -- even high-ranking cabinet officials -- from trying anyway.
Secretary of State Colin Powell rediscovered this eternal truth on a trip to India where he tried to calm an increasingly emotional debate surrounding the outsourcing of U.S. jobs. He "sought to assure Indians on Tuesday that the Bush administration would not try to halt the outsourcing of high-technology jobs to their country," The New York Times reported. He then told India's government that it should return the favor by importing American goods and services, according to the paper. (Powell also spoke about opening up trade in advance of his India trip.)
Powell "said such a move was not a precondition for the continued outsourcing of American jobs to India," the Associated Press reported. "'There is no quid pro quo here,' Powell said after meeting with Foreign Minister Yashwant Sinha to discuss what has become a politically sensitive issue in the United States."
"Powell pressed Indian officials on Tuesday to open markets to U.S. firms to help defuse the politically charged issue of the outsourcing of U.S. jobs to India. But Indian officials said they saw no link, and Powell faced tough questions from Indian college students on a lively television program over what one student called U.S. hypocrisy,"Source
By Cynthia L. Webb
washingtonpost.com Staff Writer
Wednesday, March 17, 2004; 10:01 AM
Pleasing everyone is an impossible task, no matter how noble the cause. That doesn't stop most of us -- even high-ranking cabinet officials -- from trying anyway.
Secretary of State Colin Powell rediscovered this eternal truth on a trip to India where he tried to calm an increasingly emotional debate surrounding the outsourcing of U.S. jobs. He "sought to assure Indians on Tuesday that the Bush administration would not try to halt the outsourcing of high-technology jobs to their country," The New York Times reported. He then told India's government that it should return the favor by importing American goods and services, according to the paper. (Powell also spoke about opening up trade in advance of his India trip.)
Powell "said such a move was not a precondition for the continued outsourcing of American jobs to India," the Associated Press reported. "'There is no quid pro quo here,' Powell said after meeting with Foreign Minister Yashwant Sinha to discuss what has become a politically sensitive issue in the United States."
"Powell pressed Indian officials on Tuesday to open markets to U.S. firms to help defuse the politically charged issue of the outsourcing of U.S. jobs to India. But Indian officials said they saw no link, and Powell faced tough questions from Indian college students on a lively television program over what one student called U.S. hypocrisy,"Source
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