The Business Roundtable, which includes companies such as GE, IBM and Microsoft, will use the study issued in March to counter increasing calls on the US government to favour domestically focused companies over multinationals and foreign rivals. A spokesman from The Business Roundtable said: “Protectionist and isolationist policies not only send the wrong signals to partner nations, they could prolong and deepen our current recession.”

The study, by Matthew Slaughter, professor of international economics at Tuck School of Business, concluded that US multinational companies strengthen the US economy through domestic activity and international engagement. “The idea that limiting the ability of multinationals to expand abroad would create more jobs in the US is just wrong,” said Mr Slaughter.