NEW DELHI: India on Monday reacted sharply against the four US states reportedly proposing to ban outsourcing of state data processing contracts.
Commerce Minister Arun Jaitley said that the move was against the principle of market access, and "we are placed on high moral ground to take it up at the WTO negotiations".
Speaking at the foundation stone laying ceremony of the Federation of Indian Export Organisation building here, he said while the buzz word in world trade today was "market access", the US move is "market denial" in an area where developing countries are competitive.
Four US states - New Jersey, Maryland, Connecticut and Washington - are reportedly considering bringing legislations to ban outsourcing of government contracts to companies in other countries.
Jaitley, who had discussed the issue with US trade representative Robert Zoellick at the Tokyo meeting of WTO, also said that he did not believe such moves would have any immediate adverse impact on the Indian software industry.
He said that even though the US move could only have a limited impact on Indian companies, it sends out a wrong signal.
He added that it was the competitiveness of the Indian industry, which had made a powerful economy like the US think that it was losing jobs to small towns like Gurgaon.