A recently published Special Edition of the Public Procurement Law Review (Sweet & Maxwell/UK) features articles on international trade and procurement. The articles are available on the Social Sciences Research Network, as well as on Professor Chris Yukin’s international procurement blog.
In an introductory editorial, “Procurement Trade Agreements and Their Discontents,” Robert Anderson (former WTO Secretariat lead on the Government Procurement Agreement (GPA) and Honorary Professor at the University of Nottingham School of Law) and Christopher Yukins (George Washington University Law Professor) provided the context for the three articles in the Special Edition.
In the first article, “Expansion of International Procurement Commitments: WTO Procurement Agreement Versus Free Trade Agreements,” Jean Heilman Grier pointed out that the recent increase in countries opening their procurement markets under international agreements reflected the important role that government procurement plays in international trade. She set out the basis for her expectation that while the GPA will slowly add new members as it continues to serve as the gold standard for international procurement agreements, free trade agreements will provide the principal expansion of procurement commitments among trading partners. She also outlined concerns that the United States could serve as a “potential spoiler” with President Trump’s America First trade policy undermining existing agreements and threats to withdraw from the GPA—and even the WTO.
In “The GPA’s Domestic Review Procedures Through the Lens of North American Sub-Central Implementation: Flexibility or Incoherence?,” Derek McKee (Faculté de droit, Université de Montréal) and Daniel Schoeni (University of Dayton) examine the compliance of US states and Canadian provinces with the GPA obligation to provide foreign suppliers with access to independent and impartial fora where they can challenge public procurement decisions. In doing so, they uncovered ambiguities in the GPA provisions.
Finally, in “An Empirical Study of Bid Protests by Disappointed Tenderers in US States,” Daniel Schoeni reported on data he gathered on bid protests in 27 of the 37 US states that are covered by the GPA, as well as 9 of the 13 non-covered states. He found that on average, protests in the US “are at least as common at the state level as at the federal level.”
[Note: The Special Edition was edited by the University of Nottingham and published by Thomson Reuters, trading as Sweet & Maxwell, 5 Canada Square, Canary Wharf, London, E14 5AQ, in 34 Pub. Proc. Law Rev., No. 4 (2025). The articles are made available by agreement with the publishers.]
A recently published Special Edition of the Public Procurement Law Review (Sweet & Maxwell/UK) features articles on international trade and procurement. The articles are available on the Social Sciences Research Network, as well as on Professor Chris Yukin’s international procurement blog.
In an introductory editorial, “Procurement Trade Agreements and Their Discontents,” Robert Anderson (former WTO Secretariat lead on the Government Procurement Agreement (GPA) and Honorary Professor at the University of Nottingham School of Law) and Christopher Yukins (George Washington University Law Professor) provided the context for the three articles in the Special Edition.
In the first article, “Expansion of International Procurement Commitments: WTO Procurement Agreement Versus Free Trade Agreements,” Jean Heilman Grier pointed out that the recent increase in countries opening their procurement markets under international agreements reflected the important role that government procurement plays in international trade. She set out the basis for her expectation that while the GPA will slowly add new members as it continues to serve as the gold standard for international procurement agreements, free trade agreements will provide the principal expansion of procurement commitments among trading partners. She also outlined concerns that the United States could serve as a “potential spoiler” with President Trump’s America First trade policy undermining existing agreements and threats to withdraw from the GPA—and even the WTO.
In “The GPA’s Domestic Review Procedures Through the Lens of North American Sub-Central Implementation: Flexibility or Incoherence?,” Derek McKee (Faculté de droit, Université de Montréal) and Daniel Schoeni (University of Dayton) examine the compliance of US states and Canadian provinces with the GPA obligation to provide foreign suppliers with access to independent and impartial fora where they can challenge public procurement decisions. In doing so, they uncovered ambiguities in the GPA provisions.
Finally, in “An Empirical Study of Bid Protests by Disappointed Tenderers in US States,” Daniel Schoeni reported on data he gathered on bid protests in 27 of the 37 US states that are covered by the GPA, as well as 9 of the 13 non-covered states. He found that on average, protests in the US “are at least as common at the state level as at the federal level.”
[Note: The Special Edition was edited by the University of Nottingham and published by Thomson Reuters, trading as Sweet & Maxwell, 5 Canada Square, Canary Wharf, London, E14 5AQ, in 34 Pub. Proc. Law Rev., No. 4 (2025). The articles are made available by agreement with the publishers.]
