Tighter border controls and visa delays have cost U.S. firms tens of billions of dollars in lost contracts and added expenses, particularly in fast-growing new markets in China and other developing countries, according to a study to be released today.
The analysis by eight leading business groups represents the first corporate effort to quantify the economic effect of the tightening of America's borders after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
Companies have been reluctant to publicly criticize the U.S. homeland security campaign, in part because they fear they would be accused of jeopardizing America's safety or would run afoul of government officials.
But nearly three years after the attacks, U.S. executives who were surveyed said they were concerned that the Bush administration had cast its security net too wide, keeping out legitimate foreign businesspeople, students and tourists and breeding resentment just as U.S. firms are increasingly global.
The analysis by Santangelo Group Inc., a Washington consulting firm, was based on responses from 141 companies in eight business groups, whose members include Boeing Co., Microsoft Corp. and other leading exporters.
The study estimated that visa processing problems cost U.S. firms $30.7 billion in revenues and indirect expenses between July 2002 and March 2004. That sum doesn't reflect the broader costs of border tightening, such as airport delays or increased screening of shipping containers.
The survey's findings about problems employers have with visas are consistent with anecdotal evidence that homeland security in general is imposing widespread and often unforeseen costs.
The concerns of the business community were echoed in a statement released two weeks ago by more than 20 of the nation's leading scientific and academic organizations..
If action isn't taken quickly, they warned, U.S. academic institutions could lose not only millions of dollars in tuition and other revenue from foreign students but also the brainpower that has helped keep the U.S. at the forefront of science and technology.
Secretary of State Colin L. Powell and other top U.S. officials have acknowledged that the country must act more forcefully to combat the growing perception overseas that America has closed its doors to foreign visitors and business people.
