Offshoring & Outsourcing: Do multinational corporations have a duty to maintain a strong presence in their home countries?

http://www.economist.com/debate/overview/245

An outsourcing trend had spread among the multinational corporations with not only basic manufacturing work, but also crucial functions such as R&D being moved to fast-growing markets. However, the Great Recession’s impact has caused many to hold grudges against such trends. Therefore politicians are pressuring firms to keep operations within the borders or bring them back home. With so much objection expressed toward corporations going overseas, they have started a kind of trend called “reshoring,” in fear of further public dispute. Now, even chief executives are emphasizing the importance of staying, rather than expanding. They proclaim that firms have a duty to their home country and that it’s also in the best interest of the corporations as well. Among such supporters is Harry Mosers, who is the president of GF AgieCharmilles and claims that the firms have a responsibility to pay back to the state that have granted them privileges right from the beginning. He also states that merely going offshore due to the bandwagon appeal and with no correct measuring rather damages the firms. On the other hand, professor of economics and law at Columbia University, Jagdish Bhagwati, says we should tilt our head toward reality, in which multinationals do make profit from foreign investment.