WTO ~ HISTORIC DEAL REACHED ON GOVERNMENT PROCUREMENT

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15 December 2011

GOVERNMENT PROCUREMENT
Historic deal reached on government procurement

Parties to the Plurilateral Government Procurement Agreement (GPA) reached today (15 December 2011) a historic deal to improve the disciplines for this key sector of the economy and expand the market access coverage valued at between 80 to 100 billion dollars a year.

Government procurement

Eighth WTO Ministerial Conference

“This extremely important deal means better disciplines for awarding government contracts. And this also means better use of public resources in a moment when, more than ever, the economic crisis calls for fiscal discipline.

It will also provide a needed stimulus for the world economy because it would apply to many sectors of it, namely to the suppliers of infrastructure, public transport, hospital equipment and many other government services,” said Director-General Pascal Lamy.

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Participants negotiated the revision of the 1994 Agreement ten years ago and the conclusion came hours before the official opening of the 8th Ministerial Conference when Ministers belonging to the 42 parties to the Agreement adopted the text of the revised Agreement and the annexes containing the commitments made for the expanded coverage.

It is calculated that market access gains from this expanded Agreement will come from the addition of new government entities including local governments and sub-central entities, services and other areas of the public procurement activities to the current Agreement.

It will also speed up the accession of new members to the current 42 participants. China, as well as eight other WTO members, is currently negotiating accession to the voluntary Agreement.

The new transparency provisions would be also effective in fighting corruption.

For more information Government Procurement Agreement (GPA)