United Nations Conference on Trade and Development said on Friday fears that outsourcing resulted in widespread job loss was "misplaced", adding offshoring was a legitimate part of global trade.

"Offshoring was a legitimate part of global trade liberalisation and this enabled developing countries to leverage their competitive advantage -- abundant, competitive labour and lower cost environment," UNCTAD secretary general Rubens Ricupero said.

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In a statement at the eighth session of the Commission on Trade in Goods, Services and Commodities, he said, "Despite some attempts at provoking government measures in some countries, I do not think this (outsourcing) is amenable to government control and will be driven by market forces."

Exhorting developing countries to unitedly thwart the move to ban business process outsourcing, UNCTAD said third world nations should seek binding multilateral commitments to pre-empt any protectionist measure.

"We cannot argue liberalisation abroad and practice protectionism at home. However strong the short-term costs appear to be, the long-term costs (benefits from offshoring services) are greater - for consumers and jobs," the UNCTAD chief said quoting British Trade Secretary Patricia Hewitt.