India has strongly objected to the move by two Senators from the United States, asking nine Indian IT companies to furnish details of their work force and their use of H-1B visa. Commerce Minister Kamal Nath today said that he will take up the issue with Susan Schwab, the United State Trade Representative as well as the G-4 meeting on world trade talks, scheduled to be held in Brussels on May 17 and 18."I am surprised both with the form and content of the letter. Issues such as work visas are inter-governmental in nature and should be dealt with accordingly. Temporary movement of skilled professionals is an essential component of the global services economy and bears no relation to immigration issues. Any move which creates uncertainty and unpredictability about such movements will naturally have an adverse impact on the rapidly expanding services trade," a statement released by Nath said.The letter was written by Republican senator Charles Grassley and Democrat Senator Richard Durbin, who are members of the US Senate Judiciary Committee (Sub- Committee on Immigration, Border Security and Refugees) to Indian IT companies like Infosys and Wipro, i-Flex and Satyam Computer services.The statement further added that India had been discussing liberalisation of their regime for movement of skilled professionals to facilitate further expansion of services. "At this juncture, we would be extremely concerned if there are efforts to circumscribe the existing levels of liberalization in this area in the United States," the statement added.Nath assured the service sector companies in India that the country would not accept any conclusion of the Doha Round of World Trade Talks without any satisfactory outcome in services.
