You are listening too much to the Democrats who beleive that "exports are good, imports are bad". This is the old merchatilist philosophy of the East India Company which has been discredited many times over. It was first discredited by Adam smith in 1776 in his pathbreaking book "The wealth of nations". Lets follow the dollar. Lets say an american client is buying software services from TCS or WIPRO instead of some american company. Yes, as you say, "jobs get shifted" from this american company to TCS or WIPRO in India. This american client will pay $$ to TCS to get this software. What happens to this $$? TCS cannot pay its employees in India with $$ or buy other services in India for $$ because the indian currency is the Rupee. TCS has to exchange $$ for Re. But who buys this $$ from TCS? It has to be someone who wants to buy american goods/services or assets (stocks, bonds, real estate etc.) because that is the only use of the $$. So this person who acqurires $$ from TCS could be Kingfisher airlines which wants to buy Boeing jets. This would lead to more jet production at Boeing and more jobs for americans. If the US govt. were to limit software imports fron India, it would correspondingly limit Boeing jet sales to India. This might lead to loss of jobs at Boeing, eventhough it might mean a payraise for software engineers! America's resources which are better spent in making Boeing jets are used for making software, which could be made cheaper in India!!
