In its recently issued annual report, the WTO Committee on Government Procurement highlighted progress on accessions to the WTO Government Procurement Agreement (GPA)–but added no new members, its decision to provide greater transparency of its work, its work programs, and its designation of a new chair (from Norway). This post examines the key developments over the past year.
Pending Accessions: Despite expectations that Albania and Costa Rica would join the GPA in 2025, the Committee only reported that “accessions negotiations continued apace.” Albania circulated its final market access offer in January and Costa Rica submitted revised final market access offers in May and June. Their accessions have been held up by unresolved concerns of one party in the case of Costa Rica and two parties with respect to Albania. The report provides no information on the outstanding issues. However, the United States could be seeking a commitment from the two countries to restrict access to their procurement, similar to the commitments it obtained in its recently concluded framework agreement with Switzerland and Liechtenstein. That agreement dealt with the Trump administration’s contention in the April 2025 Report to the President on the America First Trade Policy that when GPA partners open their procurement markets to countries that do not have commitments under the plurilateral agreement, it affects US firms’ ability to compete in their procurement.
The Committee also reported some good news on accessions. Timor-Leste applied for accession, becoming the first least-developed country to seek GPA membership. In addition, in a significant development in its long-running accession negotiations, China announced in September that it would not seek new special and differential treatment in current and future WTO negotiations and has indicated that principle would be reflected in its next market access offer. (China last submitted a new market access offer in 2019.) China’s insistence on transitional measures, reserved under the GPA for developing countries, has been one of the stumbling blocks in its accession negotiations.
Another positive development was Tajikistan’s reinitiation of its accession negotiations, which had been dormant for several years. Tajikistan noted its bilateral negotiations with the European Union on an Enhanced Partnership and Cooperation Agreement–with provisions on government procurement–would support its efforts to join the GPA.
Guatemala and Barbados joined the Committee as observers, bringing the total number to 38.
Transparency Decision:The Committee expanded the window into its work with a transparency decision, adopted at its November 2025 meeting, which will make available to the public a wide range of documents, including annotated meeting agendas and written summaries of its informal sessions, thus providing insights into its deliberative processes. Of particular interest is its commitment to release documents on its work programs, the most active of which are on sustainable procurement, small and medium enterprises (SMEs), and the collection and reporting of statistical data. Since these work programs were established in 2014, the Committee has released only a handful of their work products, such as Best Practices for SMEs in 2024 and green procurement catalogues published on the e-GPA Gateway.
Under the new decision, documents relating to accession negotiations will only be made public after the GPA enters into force for the new party. If the parties renegotiate or revise the GPA, the negotiating documents will not be available until at least five years after all the parties have implemented the revised or new Agreement.
Members’ Concerns: According to the Committee report, GPA members had raised concerns with US and Canadian procurement measures. The US measures included implementation of the “Build America, Buy America Act” (BABA Act) with its broad domestic content requirement for infrastructure projects, and the Memorandum on the America First Trade Policy. The US committed to ensure that the BABA Act is applied in a manner consistent with its obligations under the GPA and took note of concerns relating to the America First memorandum.
The US registered concerns with new sub-central measures implemented by three Canadian provinces that discriminate against, or require procuring entities to exclude, US businesses from their procurement. They included Ontario’s new procurement restriction policy, which bans procurement from the US. Canada responded that procurement decisions made by provincial and territorial governments fall within their exclusive jurisdictions and that it would relay the US’s views to the provinces.
Outstanding Obligations: As it has in previous annual reports, the Committee outlined outstanding obligations that had not been fulfilled. They include a mandate to review the operation and effectiveness of GPA Article V on developing countries every five years and a mandate for negotiations to improve the GPA and expand its coverage, which should have begun three years after the 2014 implementation of the revised GPA. The Committee has taken no action to respond to these unaddressed requirements.
To summarize, in 2025, the GPA continued to move forward with modest achievements, a trend reflected in its 45-year history that began in 1981 with the implementation of its predecessor.
In its recently issued annual report, the WTO Committee on Government Procurement highlighted progress on accessions to the WTO Government Procurement Agreement (GPA)–but added no new members, its decision to provide greater transparency of its work, its work programs, and its designation of a new chair (from Norway). This post examines the key developments over the past year.
Pending Accessions: Despite expectations that Albania and Costa Rica would join the GPA in 2025, the Committee only reported that “accessions negotiations continued apace.” Albania circulated its final market access offer in January and Costa Rica submitted revised final market access offers in May and June. Their accessions have been held up by unresolved concerns of one party in the case of Costa Rica and two parties with respect to Albania. The report provides no information on the outstanding issues. However, the United States could be seeking a commitment from the two countries to restrict access to their procurement, similar to the commitments it obtained in its recently concluded framework agreement with Switzerland and Liechtenstein. That agreement dealt with the Trump administration’s contention in the April 2025 Report to the President on the America First Trade Policy that when GPA partners open their procurement markets to countries that do not have commitments under the plurilateral agreement, it affects US firms’ ability to compete in their procurement.
The Committee also reported some good news on accessions. Timor-Leste applied for accession, becoming the first least-developed country to seek GPA membership. In addition, in a significant development in its long-running accession negotiations, China announced in September that it would not seek new special and differential treatment in current and future WTO negotiations and has indicated that principle would be reflected in its next market access offer. (China last submitted a new market access offer in 2019.) China’s insistence on transitional measures, reserved under the GPA for developing countries, has been one of the stumbling blocks in its accession negotiations.
Another positive development was Tajikistan’s reinitiation of its accession negotiations, which had been dormant for several years. Tajikistan noted its bilateral negotiations with the European Union on an Enhanced Partnership and Cooperation Agreement–with provisions on government procurement–would support its efforts to join the GPA.
Guatemala and Barbados joined the Committee as observers, bringing the total number to 38.
Transparency Decision:The Committee expanded the window into its work with a transparency decision, adopted at its November 2025 meeting, which will make available to the public a wide range of documents, including annotated meeting agendas and written summaries of its informal sessions, thus providing insights into its deliberative processes. Of particular interest is its commitment to release documents on its work programs, the most active of which are on sustainable procurement, small and medium enterprises (SMEs), and the collection and reporting of statistical data. Since these work programs were established in 2014, the Committee has released only a handful of their work products, such as Best Practices for SMEs in 2024 and green procurement catalogues published on the e-GPA Gateway.
Under the new decision, documents relating to accession negotiations will only be made public after the GPA enters into force for the new party. If the parties renegotiate or revise the GPA, the negotiating documents will not be available until at least five years after all the parties have implemented the revised or new Agreement.
Members’ Concerns: According to the Committee report, GPA members had raised concerns with US and Canadian procurement measures. The US measures included implementation of the "Build America, Buy America Act" (BABA Act) with its broad domestic content requirement for infrastructure projects, and the Memorandum on the America First Trade Policy. The US committed to ensure that the BABA Act is applied in a manner consistent with its obligations under the GPA and took note of concerns relating to the America First memorandum.
The US registered concerns with new sub-central measures implemented by three Canadian provinces that discriminate against, or require procuring entities to exclude, US businesses from their procurement. They included Ontario’s new procurement restriction policy, which bans procurement from the US. Canada responded that procurement decisions made by provincial and territorial governments fall within their exclusive jurisdictions and that it would relay the US’s views to the provinces.
Outstanding Obligations: As it has in previous annual reports, the Committee outlined outstanding obligations that had not been fulfilled. They include a mandate to review the operation and effectiveness of GPA Article V on developing countries every five years and a mandate for negotiations to improve the GPA and expand its coverage, which should have begun three years after the 2014 implementation of the revised GPA. The Committee has taken no action to respond to these unaddressed requirements.
To summarize, in 2025, the GPA continued to move forward with modest achievements, a trend reflected in its 45-year history that began in 1981 with the implementation of its predecessor.
