North Macedonia became the 49th WTO member to implement the plurilateral WTO Government Procurement Agreement (GPA) on October 30th, four years after the last accession (Australia in 2019). The accession fulfills a commitment made by North
The Biden administration has proposed changes in the rules that implement the Buy American Act of 1933, in response to the president’s January 2021 Made in America order. The changes include increases in the domestic content threshold required for a
A group of Senate Democrats has asked President Biden to suspend waivers of “Buy American and other domestic procurement preferences” for countries that are parties to trade agreements for procurement using Covid-19 funding. This post considers the role
On July 8, the United States and the Republic of Kenya launched negotiations of a free trade agreement (FTA). Both countries have set out their objectives for the negotiations. The U.S. aims for government procurement mirror its objectives for the
A Djaghe reference paper, U.S. Laws Limit Procurement Commitments, examines the relationship between U.S. laws that restrict the purchase of foreign goods and services and U.S. commitments under international trade agreements. The paper generally
In contrast to its expansion of Buy American policies, the Trump administration took an unusual step and lifted a ban on procurement of N95 masks, hand sanitizers, personal protective equipment (PPE) and other products needed to fight covid-19 from non-trade
On February 4, Bloomberg news service reported that President Trump is considering issuing an executive order that would withdraw the United States from the WTO Government Procurement Agreement (GPA). This post considers some of the likely consequences of
On March 22, the European Council (heads of the European Union’s member states) called for resuming efforts to adopt a regulation aimed at opening procurement markets of third countries, in particular China. This post outlines the proposed measure,
ITEM OF NOTE This post highlights findings of a December 2018 report by the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) on the use of waivers and exceptions of the Buy American Act of 1933 (BAA). GAO found that of the federal agencies’ purchases of $196
On November 27th, the parties to the WTO Government Procurement Agreement (GPA) approved in principle the United Kingdom’s final market access offer for membership in the GPA, in its own right, after it leaves the European Union. They must still approve a