Rejecting US criticism that India has a closed economy, the government on Thursday said growth in imports were a testimony to the liberalising economy and expressed confidence that the IT industry would find a "creative solution" to the contentious outsourcing issue.
"Our imports have grown by 25 per cent... is this not openness?" IT and Communications Minister Arun Shourie retorted when asked to respond to US Trade Representative Robert Zoellick's comments on the issue of outsourcing and trade.
Shourie said the Indian industry was not nervous over the issue and would device creative solutions to it.
The US had conceded that the issue of outsourcing was "complex", but stated India had no right to complain about proposed legislations in the Congress and some state legislatures prohibiting the trend as it was one of the most "closed" economies in the world.
"The Indians," US Trade Representative Robert Zoellick told the Senate Finance Committee on Wednesday, "have absolutely no right to complain because they don't belong to the government procurement code" in the World Trade Organization, which sets obligations for making procurement deals transparent.
"...frankly, they are not that liberal on the services side," he alleged, adding India, which is attracting some of the outsourced US jobs, is maintaining "one of the most closed economies in the world."