In 2024, major trading partners focused more on protecting domestic procurement interests than opening new procurement markets. That is the conclusion of a new Briefing Paper, Key International Procurement Developments in 2024, published by Thomson
In 2023, the liberalization of procurement markets generally outpaced domestic protectionism with some worrisome signs. Evidence of liberalization was seen in the WTO Government Procurement Agreement (GPA), which added its first new member in four years and
China has proposed a new revision of its Government Procurement Law (GPL), the law that applies to the conduct of procurement at all levels of the Chinese government. The proposal appears to extend, for the first time, to the procurement of state-owned
This post surveys major actions in 2021 in the international procurement arena. It begins with agreements that are aimed at liberalizing procurement markets. It then looks at measures that are focused on protecting domestic procurement markets or restricting
Fifteen Asian countries, including China, Japan, Korea, Australia, New Zealand and the 10 ASEAN members, signed the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) on November 15, after eight years of negotiations. Following the Trans-Pacific
A recently published article, “Growing Significance of Regional Trade Agreements in Opening Public Procurement” compares the role of the WTO Government Procurement Agreement (GPA) and regional trade agreements (RTAs) in opening government procurement
On April 28, the European Union and Mexico concluded negotiations of “the last outstanding element” of their new trade agreement that was announced two years ago. The missing element was “the exact scope” of the opening of their public procurement
In November, the leaders of 15 of the 16 countries participating in the negotiation of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) announced that they had concluded negotiations on the text of the trade agreement and “essentially all their market
The details of the Trump administration’s trade agreements with Japan have unfolded in stages. First was the announcement at the G7 meeting in August that the United States and Japan had reach an agreement. Then came further details in a joint statement
ITEM OF NOTE A paper, Converging Procurement Systems: Developments in 2018, was presented at the annual Thomas Reuters’ Government Contracts Year in Review Conference in February. It examines developments in the international procurement arena in 2018,