India asks the US to amend Border security bill

[OhioChick]

Source: Economic Times of India

20 Aug, 2010, 10.44AM IST,PTI

WASHINGTON: The provisions of the border security bill, which allows massive increase in the fees on on categories of H-1B and L1 visas, is discriminatory against the Indian companies, India has said and asked the United States to amend it.

Indian Ambassador to the US Meera Shankar had lodged an official protest to the US Trade Representative Ambassador Ron Kirk in a letter dated August 9, about five days before Obama signed the border security bill into law ignoring India's concerns.

The letter, a copy of which is in possession with the PTI, has been sent this week to the US Congress informing the lawmakers the views of Indian Government on the issue.

The US President Barack Obama, last week, had signed the bill into the law.



Read more: http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/news-by-industry/services/travel/visa-power/India-asks-the-US-to-amend-Border-security-bill/articleshow/6370394.cms

[MikeW]

1. Meera Shankar called ... left a message .. well call you back real soon LOL

[mike r]

2. We'll take care of it straight away, Sir

NOT!

[LiberalEsto]

3. Hiring H1-B workers

is massively discriminatory against American workers

I have it from a very good source that Fannie Mae actively recruits people from India and will not hire Americans for information technology positions.

[leveymg]

5. Under a provision of TARP/TALF, financial institutions are barred from

hiring H-1B workers if the institution has laid-off U.S. workers in the same occupation.

[valerief]

10. That's been working really well, huh? Haven't they increased the number of H1Bs this year? nt

[leveymg]

11. Just the opposite - utilization of H-1B and L-1 are down about 40 percent

during the past three years. The drop-off actually started to occur before the Wall St meltdown of Q3 2008. The loss in jobs is not because of non-immigrant workers coming in, it's been because there are no effective controls on multinational corporations offshoring jobs and profits.

H-1B is a distraction from the larger issue of regulation on global corporate investments and the movement of capital.

[valerief]

12. That's true. Every few months I'm waiting to here my job has been shipped to India. nt

[leveymg]

13. At this point, further restrictions on H-1B are only going to accelerate offshoring, as

more companies quit the U.S. market, altogether. I'd rather see those jobs here, no matter the nationality of the worker, and welcome the talent that it attracts. People don't know that there are only 85,000 new H-1B visa numbers created each year, and half of them haven't even been applied for so far in 2010. Four years ago, every single visa number was taken in one day.

[valerief]

20. Well, they've done a good job of training the H1Bs and shipping those jobs

and more offshore over the last few years. That's how I see it.

[leveymg]

4. If the WTO court finds the law has discriminatory effect, the US could be forced to stop implement-

ation or else face monetary sanctions.

It's happened before. Or, the US could withdraw from that GATS obligation, which would set off a trade war.

[Hello_Kitty]

6. We're already in a trade war. We're losing. eom

[leveymg]

7. Not on the Trade-in-Services side of the ledger. We've had a positive trade balance for

decades in services. It's in manufacturing and exports of goods that we've lost ground to the rest of the world. The decision to deindustrialize and offshore manufacture has been a major disaster from a balance of payments and jobs perspective.

But, no, it's not all bad, we do well in exporting knowledge-based services - the H-1B controversy is really a distraction from a much larger policy issue that nobody wants to talk about - controls over the movement of capital, investments and jobs by multinational corporations. If we don't finally bring some pressure on the flow of money by global banks and corporations, the U.S. is screwed forever.

[ChromeFoundry]

19. +1 n/t

[Romulox]

8. Nonsense. The WTO has no jurisdiction over the movement of persons.

:hi:

[leveymg]

9. It's called the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS), Modes 1 to 4

H-1B -- the provision of services by persons moving across borders -- is governed by the GATS Mode 4 rules and obligations the US signed in 1995. Look it up.

[FreakinDJ]

18. We need to "Tar and Feather" the Free Traitors

[MikeW]

14. i dont think we care what the WTO thinks at this point in history ... sorry

[Odin2005]

15. We should tell the WTO to screw off.

Trade War? Bring it on!

[quakerboy]

21. So be it.

When the choice is starve or international trade war, I have a fair clue what most people will chose.

What exactly would be involved in the US withdrawing from the WTO? That might not be the worst thing we could do.

[Odin2005]

16. Abso-fucking-lutely NOT!

[FreakinDJ]

17. CANCEL the H1B progam - they'll have nothing to complain about

[johnroshan]

22. I'm an Indian student here studying at a SUNY.

While I can understand the reaction here at DU against H1Bs. I can't help but wonder why this protectionist attitudes don't spill over to the general product and market trade. I would like to know why there is a huge uproar every time India makes a statement about import duties, crying PROTECTIONIST!!

As far as my opinion is concerned, the whole free trade agreement is total crap and it is destroying weak economies in developing countries.

Please feel free to bash any of the above mentioned ideas. I'm not an economist.

John.