London: Asserting that it would not take recourse to protectionism to prevent companies from offshoring, Britain has said it would be perverse to do so when countries such as India are growing through the sort of international trade that the UK has encouraged.

"Recourse to protectionism is not the right way forward. We are a trading nation, and are heavily dependent on open markets throughout the world for our exports of goods and services," British Minister for Energy, E-Commerce and Postal Services, Stephen Timms, told the House of Commons.

Replying to a debate on call centres, Timms said, "Closing our markets would be inconsistent with our aim of helping developing countries out of poverty through trade. Indeed, it would be perverse to do so when countries such as India are growing through the sort of international trade that we in the United Kingdom have encouraged."

"Fortunately, no organisation on this side of the Atlantic are calling for protectionist responses, unlike organisations on the other side of the Atlantic, whose calls I noted when I was in Washington last week. Such steps would be profoundly mistaken and would severely damage the UK and our trading partners."

Timms said last year in the UK the Government succeeded in attracting 700 inward investment projects in the country including 19 from India.

"India is becoming a major inward investor into the UK. Those 700 inward investment projects generated between them nearly 35,000 new jobs, the figure included 35 new customer contact centers."