FSOkx: What’s your impression of Senator Schumer’s bill? David Poole: Anything that actually reduces a company’s ability to manage their costs and compete on an international basis will have a negative impact. A company that is less competitive won’t be able to grow and is less likely to succeed in the global economy. FSOkx: So what’s driving the bill: economics or politics? Poole. Both. While it may be politically popular to use this type of restrictive legislation to give the impression of trying to help improve U.S. employment, economics demonstrate that just the opposite would happen. Stopping these companies from using lower cost resources force them to increase their prices and I’m not sure that’s positive for the economy. FSOkx: Does this bill have legs? Poole: There have been a number of attempts to introduce these kinds of legislations before and I doubt that the bill will progress much further because businesses will lobby against it very strongly.
The bill is like a gunshot across the bow. At the end of the day, the economic health of business is what will come first. I just hope that policies will support businesses trying to compete on an international scale. FSOkx: If the bill does become a reality, are there any industries that would be particularly hard-hit? Poole: The bill would impact industries that use offshore call centers extensively as part of their supply chain, including banks, energy companies, consumer goods companies, electronics companies, and of course U.S. companies in the call center business. FSOkx: But doesn’t offshoring call center jobs increase U.S. unemployment? Poole: Not really. This is not work that a lot of Americans actually want to do and forcing U.S. companies to use onshore call centers will result in a huge shortage of call center agents. There is a greater supply of educated, well-qualified resources able and willing to do this work in some offshore locations. To counter the shortage of onshore agents, we may need to allow large numbers of immigrants to come into the country to fill those jobs.
High unemployment is also caused because U.S. companies are not as competitive as their counterparts. By intervening with legislation, you make it more expensive for U.S. companies to operate. The way to enable companies to succeed is to allow them to determine their own cost structure.
Anyway you look at it, taxing offshore call centers is not the best way for the American population to find employment. It’s slightly naïve to think that you can cure unemployment by taxing telephone calls. FSOkx: Is onshoring a call center a viable option? Poole: Absolutely. Capgemini recently opened a few onshore delivery centers. We find that onshore centers can be incredibly successful and very competitive.
However, we chose to onshore for good business and economic reasons, not because of government intervention or punitive measures. Businesses should be allowed to develop based on what makes the best sense, not based on an artificial distortion in market economics. | 
