Amidst the current economic turmoil, it is not surprising that the ogre of protectionism has once again reared its ugly head.
From Barack Obama's "Buy American" stimulus package provision, to Gordon Brown's "British jobs for British workers" comments, to the calls by President Sarkozy to repatriate the production of French cars from Eastern Europe, there is no shortage of evidence pointing to an increasing level of political debate over the merits of and methods for fencing in domestic economies. Even the Swiss have felt the need to call a referendum on whether to keep its labour markets open to all EU countries despite increasing internal unease over a possible tide of economic immigration from its neighbors.
For the outsourcing industry, which has spent much of this decade migrating its business models to ones that leverage global delivery platforms built upon off and near shoring approaches, such political rhetoric makes for uneasy listening. Globalisation has been one of the key factors driving continued growth in this sector. Forces - be they legislative or social (it will be increasingly brave for any high profile business to be seen as "exporting" jobs) - that conspire to constrain this current modus operandi will not be welcome developments.
For the moment, in public at least, most national leaders are still preaching the doctrine of internationalism. From the G9 to the EU, the talk is of coordinated responses and global answers to global problems. History has shown us, however that countries find it hard to stay faithful to liberal markets when the domestic electorate is calling for action in the face of a severe economic downturn.
The hope is that our natural reflexes to build fences to protect do not lead us to digging ourselves into an even bigger hole.
