TPA and H-1B
TPA and H-1B
Date: Friday, July 05, 2002 12:24 PM
*** H-1B NEWSLETTER ***
Get the Facts on H-1B at
www.ZaZona.com
The last paragraph of this article is evidence of what I have been saying
for quite awhile. The Trade Promotion Authority (TPA) will make it far
easier for companies to shift labor between international boundries. Workers
will now face competition from a multitude of countries that are willing to
race to the lowest acceptable pay scale.
I'm including a CNN article about outsourcing after this one. Note that is
says Indian programmers can be hired "Ten for the price of one".
ECONOMY
FROM THE ARCHIVES: July 1, 2002
U.S. to Push Service-Sector Trade
In a Sweeping Liberalization Plan
By MICHAEL M. PHILLIPS
Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
WASHINGTON -- The U.S. will ask 142 trading partners to open their borders
to American services, in a sweeping proposal aimed at liberalizing global
trade in an area where the U.S already holds an advantage over other
industrialized nations.
Telecommunications companies, securities dealers, data processors, banks,
express-delivery concerns, oil drillers, software makers, and other service
providers would benefit from the proposed change, to be released in summary
form Monday by the Bush administration. The administration believes the
elimination of barriers to trade in services could create $1.18 trillion in
new commerce world-wide each year, $450 billion of it going to U.S. firms.
"This is certainly where our economic strength is," said a senior U.S. trade
official. "We feel like services liberalization is good for us, and also
very good for the developing world."
The administration's proposal, the next step in the Doha round of global
trade talks, will be delivered to 127 nations and the 15-member European
Union. Virtually every recipient country will receive a tailored list of
specific policies the U.S. would like changed. The countries, which will
provide their own demands of the U.S. and each other, then will have nine
months to provide counteroffers.
Months of haggling are likely to follow before the trade talks conclude at
the start of 2005. Separate negotiations are under way for agricultural
products, manufactured goods and other trade issues.
The proposal constitutes "an important milestone," said Bob Vastine,
president of the 60-member Coalition of Service Industries, and chairman of
the industry group advising U.S. Trade Representative Robert Zoellick. "It
doesn't mean that trade liberalization is going to happen the day after."
Trade and industry officials expect there will be intense negotiations over
several sensitive aspects of the U.S. proposal. Many countries are likely to
resist American demands that their regulations -- of insurance, banking and
other services -- be completely transparent to both domestic and foreign
companies. The U.S. government opens its regulatory decisions to public
comment and scrutiny; other countries, especially in the developing world,
often keep those regulations obscured both as they are being written and
after they have been approved. The governments in those places frequently
own phone companies, banks and utilities.
"We take it for granted," said Mr. Vastine. But "we're talking Greek to a
lot of countries who don't really understand yet what we need and what we
intend when we talk about regulatory transparency."
The Europeans, on the other hand, would like the U.S. to harmonize the
various state regulations for insurance, lawyers and other services,
something that could be difficult to achieve under the federal system.
The Bush administration also could have a tough time persuading its trading
partners to allow U.S. service companies to own larger shares of
joint-venture operations overseas. In some countries, foreign companies are
allowed to own as little as 10% of their local operations. U.S. companies,
backed by the federal government, want to be able to own 100% of the equity,
or, at least, a majority stake.
The U.S., for its part, is likely to come under pressure from its trading
partners to allow easier travel to the U.S. by foreign executives and
technicians. Indian, Pakistani, Colombian, Chilean and other companies would
like U.S. immigration laws eased so their employees can take short work
trips to the U.S. -- a tough sell in the post-Sept. 11 climate.
Write to Michael M. Phillips at michael.phillips@wsj.com
Updated July 1, 2002
http://www.cnn.com/2002/TECH/industry/07/04/india.developers.reut/index.html
Web titans woo India's tech experts
BANGALORE, India (Reuters) --Cheap hardware, free trips to the United
States, all the popcorn you can eat -- life's a junket if you're a computer
programmer in India.
In their tussle to dominate the emerging industry for Internet-based
services, industry giants Microsoft Corp. and Sun Microsystems are doling
out incentives as they woo programmers worldwide to back their rival
software.
The courting is particularly competitive in India, where by some estimates
more than 10 percent of the world's programmers work for some of the
industry's lowest wages.
"They keep contacting us and say 'spend time with us'," said Shanti
Sivakumar, a co-founder of iTech Workshop, which writes software for the
healthcare and communications industries.
At stake is the nascent market for Web services, which will allow companies
to do business over the Internet.
Microsoft and Sun are pushing rival standards -- called .NET and SunONE
respectively -- for programming Web services.
Persuading programmers and developers to back one standard is a key battle
in the fight to dominate the industry.
S.Sadagopan, director of the Bangalore-based Indian Institute of Information
Technology, said about 70 percent of India's software programmers are
developers -- those who design the specifications for software that is then
coded by other programmers.
The creativity of developers helps popularize standards, and demand for
code-generating tools rises as more developers adopt a standard.
Fun and challenges
Wooing programmers and their employers in Bangalore, India's southern
software center, involves blending serious mental challenges with fun.
Microsoft and Sun line up day-long seminars and months-long competitions,
laced with entertainment.
In the past few weeks, Microsoft, Sun and chipmaker Intel have all held
seminars for Indian developers. Sun's "Tech Days" saw 1,000 paid attendees,
the Intel Developers Forum 700 and Microsoft's VisualStudio tool show drew
7,500.
Techie seminars are turning increasingly glitzy, with huge screens, music
and lights fit for rock shows.
"It's 99 percent serious, but we also have popcorn and candy and bands
playing," Sun spokeswoman Aparna Devi Pratap said of the company's annual
developer show.
Exports of software and allied services from India ignored a slowdown last
year, growing 29 percent to $7.5 billion in the 12 months to March. The
current year is expected to see a 30 percent rise despite a sagging recovery
in the United States.
Underlining the importance of the industry, Microsoft Senior Marketing
Manager Daniel Ingitaraj says the number of programmers in India is expected
this year to equal the 500,000 to 550,000 in the United States.
But people are hard to count in the world's second most populous country,
and other estimates of the number vary wildly from 350,000 to 700,000.
The huge number of programmers is one reason for the low wages.
"There is an abundance of skills in Microsoft technologies. Because of this,
the price at which you can hire the skills is lower," said Gopal Kulkarni,
chief executive of Kendra Technologies, which makes software to help human
resource managers sift job applications.
Ten for the price of one
In Bangalore, home to more than 1,000 software companies, you can hire a
young programmer of Sun's Java language for around $200 a month -- less than
a tenth of what a U.S. counterpart would cost.
At least the incentives from the software companies are good: Sun's include
up to 60 percent discounts on hardware for developers, while Microsoft
offers software at a fraction of market cost.
"They have a developer program where you pay $2,000 to $3,000 and you get an
entire suite...which is not heard from other vendors," said Kulkarni.
Ingitaraj said Microsoft also wooed Indian developers this year with a
competition to make faster, more reliable software.
Academic winners got a free trip to Microsoft's Redmond headquarters, while
professionals won digital cameras.
For all these efforts, the software giants may run the risk of a poor return
for some of their marketing bucks.
For one thing, many firms are waking up fast to Linux, the free operating
system trying to rival Microsoft's Windows, said Kulkarni.
And Sivakumar of iTech Workshop said developers from her company attend
technical seminars only to catch up with the latest trends.
Copyright 2002 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be
published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed
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