Remember the Buy American clause of the proposed economic stimulus?
Meet Hire American.
Apart from the Buy American provisions restricting government spending to US companies, other items in the bill could also give cause for alarm. An amendment proposed by Bernie Sanders, a leftist independent senator for Vermont, and Charles Grassley, a Republican from Iowa, would restrict the use of foreign worker visas by financial institutions being bailed out by the federal government.
The provision prevents companies supported by the troubled asset relief programme (Tarp) from applying for H-1B visas for highly skilled foreign workers if they have recently laid off US employees.
“The very least we can do is to make sure that banks receiving a taxpayer bail-out are not allowed to import cheaper labour from overseas while they are throwing American workers out on the street,” Mr Sanders said.
So that’s just about every investment bank (sorry, bank) in the US unable to hire foreign skilled labour — not that they’re likely to be hiring any time soon, of course.
The interesting thing here is that even with the outcry against Buy American (still in the proposed stimulus bill, albeit with a softener about how international trade agreements need to be respected) — protectionism seems to be gaining pace, and not just in the US. See for instance, Wolfgang Munchau’s opinion piece on the issue within the European Union in today’s FT.
Related links:
Narrow-minded leadership hurts Europe – FT
China editorial slams ‘Buy American’ provision – AFP
Economic nationalism and the USD – FT Alphaville