The XML representation from an XSL file may differ from that used in a scenario in which a message is passed through with a transformation being performed or in which an assign activity is used, even though the XMLs are syntactically and semantically the same. For example, if you use an Oracle Mediator service component to map an inbound payload that includes an element without a namespace to an outbound payload, you may receive an empty namespace tag in the output message.

<Country xmlns="">US</Country> 

This is the correct behavior. A blank namespace, xmlns="", is automatically added.