A Djaghe reference paper, The Government Procurement Agreement under the World Trade Organization, examines the treatment of government procurement under the WTO. It begins with a brief consideration of the exclusion of procurement from multilateral obligations and the development of plurilateral procurement agreements. It then focuses on the WTO Government Procurement Agreement (GPA).

The centerpiece of the paper is a comprehensive examination of the GPA: the expansion of its membership and the pending accession negotiations of China and other WTO members; the procurement that the parties cover under the Agreement; and the principles and obligations that apply to the covered procurement. The paper also highlights elements of the administration of the Agreement. It concludes with a review of unsuccessful attempts to develop multilateral procurement obligations under the WTO. 

The reference paper is based on posts published in Perspectives on Trade and other publications.

Jean Heilman Grier

January 10, 2020

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