A paper examines the prospects for increasing the membership of the WTO Government Procurement Agreement beyond countries such as China and Russia with commitments to join the GPA. It contrasts the role of bilateral and regional trade agreements (RTAs) in opening international procurement markets, in particular, the Comprehensive and Progressive Trans-Pacific Partnership, the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership and agreements negotiated by the European Union, especially with Canada and Japan. The paper concludes that RTAs appear to offer the greater potential of broadening international procurement commitments. The paper, “Growing Significance of Regional Trade Agreements in Opening Public Procurement Markets”, was presented at the 4thInterdisciplinary Symposium on Public Procurement on October 25-26 in Paris. The conference was organized by the Sorbonne Business School, University of Rome and European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. Jean Heilman Grier October 30, 2018

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