Supporters of TAA Expansion Need to Find Another Myth

As I noted last week, the White House has refused to submit implementing legislation on pending FTAs with Colombia, Panama and South Korea until House Republicans agree to extend now-expired provisions of the Trade Adjustment Assistance program.  These provisions, included in the 2009 Stimulus* Bill, dramatically expanded the scope and coverage (and expense!) of the TAA program to include, among other things, services workers whose jobs were allegedly lost because of trade.  Here's how Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) - of the loudest proponents of the TAA expansion - described the provisions back in February:

In 2009, an update to TAA was enacted to help the program reflect the realities of today's global economy. Created in 1974, TAA originally did not allow service workers to take part in the program, and only those whose jobs were shipped to a country with which the United States has a free trade agreement qualified-in other words, workers whose jobs were sent to China and India were turned away. The 2009 update allowed service workers and those whose jobs were offshored to any country to apply.

Today Sen. Stabenow and some of her Senate colleagues repeated this refrain as they announced their support for the White House's latest FTA extortion demands.  But does their call for expanded TAA coverage to protect American services workers from outsourcing to India, China and elsewhere actually jibe with the global economic "realities" about which the Senators allegedly care so dearly?

In short, no.  Not at all.

As I recently noted, politicians' breathless claims about the rampant outsourcing of American services (and manufacturing) jobs to places like India and China are far more myth than reality.  Indeed, the United States actually ran a trade surplus in services with China (and many other countries) in 2010 and has been a net "insourcer" overall for several years now:

The US ran a relatively tiny services deficit with India in 2010 and a small surplus in 2009, but today comes eye-opening news that Indian corporations might be turning even more often to the US workforce:

[I]n a reversal of fortunes it now appears that large Indian companies are actually now themselves outsourcing - to U.S. shores.

Large corporations that have boomed in India amid the country's nimble economy have been drawn to the U.S. where unemployment has soared....

Experts said that the phenomenon, which could become more widespread in the coming years, is partly due to Indian workers demanding higher wages and higher living standards.

'The U.S. became the fastest-growing location for us last year. We expect that to continue this year,' Genpact chief executive V.N. 'Tiger' Tyagarajan said.

Joseph Vafi, an analyst at Jefferies & Co. in San Francisco told the Washington Post: 'What you have going on in India are salary hikes. As these companies get larger and larger, it just makes sense for them to do some hiring in the States.'

The Indian economy - boosted by a savings culture of large cash deposits - has boomed and is this year predicted to outpace China.

Businesses around the world have targeted India - part of the 'BRIC' emerging economies - for their global expansion.

Residents there have seen an increase in living standards and higher wages, which has led to higher spending.

In short, all that dastardly outsourcing has enriched Indian companies and workers, and now they're looking to the United States for not just new customers but also new employees.  Very cool.  The article even lists the biggest Indian companies that have outsourced work to the United States:

• Tata Consultancy Services.  Tata Consultancy Service is based in Mumbai and had a turnover of $8bn in 2011. They employ more than 200,000 worldwide with a significant number of those, believed to be around 15,000 based as outsourced jobs in the U.S.

• Aegis Communications.  Technology firm Aegis is part of the Essar group based in Mumbai with an annual revenue of $15bn. Aegis employs 9,000 in the U.S. at offices throughout the country.

• Wipro.  Based in Bangalore, IT specialists Wipro employ around 4,000 people in jobs that have been outsourced to the U.S.

• Genpact.  The IT outsourcing company employs 1,500 people in the U.S. but that is expected to triple over the next two years as bosses find it cheaper than employing Indian staff at home.

• Infosys.  The company is based in Bangalore with an annual revenue of $100m. They have 130,000 employees worldwide.

Sen. Stabenow and her colleagues claim that a massive expansion of TAA is absolutely necessary to "reflect the realities of today's global economy," so I'm sure when confronted with these indisputable facts about the global dominance of the American services sector (and its workers) - and the obvious benefits of globalization at home and abroad - these caring Senators will stop holding our pending FTAs hostage to a needless and costly TAA expansion, right?

Rrrrriiiight.

Given the fact that these TAA-loving Senators, as well as the politicians in the White House and elsewhere, desperately want to subsidize America's globally-dominant services workers with (even more) borrowed money, it seems to me that they, not those opposed to TAA expansion/extension, are the ones in dire need of a "reality check."

UPDATE: Mark Perry has more on the rapidly changing global labor market.