During the U.S. presidential election campaign, Donald Trump threated to withdraw the United States from the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) and perhaps even the World Trade Organization (WTO), and to impose
On September 27, the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) released a report, “Government Procurement Agreements Contain Similar Provisions, but Market Access Commitments Vary”, in response to a congressional request. Two Senators (Jeff Merkley,
In the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), Mexico essentially replicated its government procurement commitments under the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), including its transitional measures. This post, similar to earlier posts on Brunei, Malaysia
The United States agreed to revise procurement provisions in two free trade agreements (FTAs) in side letters to the recently concluded Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). One side letter will replace the procedures that apply to procurement covered under the
A paper, U.S. Perspective on Encouraging Countries to Join the GPA, was presented at the Fourth Annual Procurement Week Conference: Game Changing Ideas and Innovations, which was sponsored by the Institute for Competition and Procurement Studies, Faculty of
All but 10 U.S. states open procurement to foreign countries under one or more international agreements. The vast majority of the states (37) have commitments under the WTO Government Procurement Agreement (GPA), as well as the U.S.-Singapore Free Trade
Chile, Colombia or Peru should lead Latin America into the WTO Government Procurement Agreement. The 43 WTO members covered by the WTO Government Procurement Agreement (GPA) do not include any members from Latin America. Moreover, only four Latin American
The TPP parties should use a variety of tools to address Malaysia’s concerns with opening its government procurement under the TPP. According to recent press reports, Malaysia is “wary” of procurement commitments in the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP)
In light of the recent Canada-EU agreement, the United States and Canada should bolster the procurement coverage in the TPP by exchanging access to their electric utilities. Canada’s opening of the procurement of its energy utilities to the European Union
The primary benefit for the U.S. in the TPP government procurement negotiations would likely be the opening of the procurement markets of the four TPP partners with which it does not yet have procurement agreements. For the United States, the success of the