He was among those in the US Congress taking the lead to place India on the Super 301 and Special 301 hit lists of the US Trade Representative for violations of intellectual property rights and had no qualms about arguing for trade sanctions against India.
When the outsourcing controversy broke and India virtually became the whipping boy of politicians seeking a scapegoat for loss of American jobs, Baucus was on the frontlines, calling for legislation to cut off federal funding for agencies or corporates receiving government funding or assistance and which were outsourcing to India.
But Baucus has virtually turned a new leaf on the issue after a trip to Bangalore last month; not only has he changed his views about outsourcing and offshoring, but simply cannot hold himself back from raving about India.
At a major address to the National Press Club last week, Baucus in reviewing his recent trip to India and China kicked off his remarks reminiscing about his meeting with India's first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru.
Recalling how he hitch-hiked around the world while he was a student at a Stanford University program in France, Baucus said,'Forty three years ago, I was in Delhi, (while staying at the YMCA) I learned that Prime Minister Nehru met with Americans every second Thursday. So I made an appointment. I took my wrinkled blazer out of my backpack. I smoothed it out as best as I could. And I headed over to the Prime Minister's office.'
He said, 'I met with Nehru for more than half an hour. Here I was, a young student from Montana, talking with the man who had led India to independence, united its many peoples, and steered its economy. It was a life-changing experience.'
'Last week 43 years later I went back to India. This time I went as a United States Senator, with a delegation of Montanans,' he said. 'We traveled to Bangalore and Delhi. We also went to Beijing and Chongqing, China. We went to learn about the challenges and opportunities presented by the economic rise of India and China.'
Baucus said, 'Forty-three years ago I saw Prime Minister Nehru, the Taj Mahal, and New Delhi's imposing British architecture. Forty-three years ago, I saw India's history. Last week, I saw India's future.'
'I saw the future in the faces of confident, young engineering students at Delhi's Indian Institute of Technology, who have no doubt that the India of tomorrow will be better than the India their parents left them. I saw the future in Delhi's super-modern subway that snakes its way beneath that teeming city of almost 14 million.'
Baucus said he also saw 'the future at Bangalore's Infosys, whose futuristic architecture, state-of-the-art technology, and commitment to excellence has made it a global technology
In his remarks titled, 'Advancing American Competitiveness in a Changing World,' Baucus noted that India 'has developed a higher education that produces tens of thousands of incredibly gifted graduates per year. It has created a world-class Information Technology sector, which has grown an astounding 50 percent annually for over 10 years. And with new billion-dollar investments by Microsoft, Cisco Systems, Intel, and others, India's IT industry could swell fivefold in just two years.'
Baucus said another stark reality was that even as this transformation is going on in India, 'The US economy is losing some of its competitive advantage. We have lost our preeminence in information technology, falling behind Singapore, Iceland, Finland, and Denmark. At the same time, federal support for research and development is in a 30-year decline.'
He asserted that 'as far as I am concerned, one American job lost to foreign competition is one job too many. But we cannot kid ourselves. We cannot stick our heads in the sand. Our challenge is to learn why some jobs move overseas and work to keep them at home.'
Arguing that 'we must see the facts for what they are,' the senator cautioned against 'viewing Chinese and Indian economic successes as a 'zero-sum' game. Their economic gains do not depend on our losses. We can all prosper. We can all grow.. Opportunities for America abound in a successful China and India. But we are not taking advantage of them.'
Baucus said that India is investing tens of billions of dollars infrastructure projects which are open to American companies. 'But Indian government and business leaders reminded me in every meeting that American companies are not there. These opportunities are instead going to Malaysian, French, Korean, and other investors,' the Senator said.
In spelling out an agenda to meet the challenge and opportunity that India and China present to the US, Baucus said the priority for the US to remain competitive is education. 'We must again learn to value education .We must make the priority of lifelong learning an inseparable part of American society and American culture.'
He said, 'China and India place an enormous premium on education. We need to do likewise.'
He predicted that 'if we stand up to our challenges, if we make the right choices, America will continue to lead the world for the forseaable future.'
He also said knee-jerk reactions against outsourcing and offshoring was passé. 'We must get away from the old knee-jerk previous reactions to sitations and the problems. We cannot afford that knee-jerking anymore.'
Asked what he would like America's role to be in India's economic development that could lead to mutual benefit to both the Indian and US economies, Baucus reiterated that 'We should show up. We need to be there. We need a much greater presence in India.'
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