December brought the publication of two new articles on international government procurement issues.
1. Jean Heilman Grier, “Preferences and Unilateral Measures in Public Procurement” in The Economics and Law of Public Procurement: New Global Scenarios, edited by A. Castelli, G. Piga and T. Tátrai, 180-210 (Routledge 2025), available at https://www.routledge.com/The-Economics-and-Law-of-Public-Procurement-New-Global-Scenarios/Castelli-Piga-Tatrai/p/book/9781032631691.
The chapter, “Preferences and Unilateral Measures in Public Procurement,” grew out of the 5th Interdisciplinary Symposium on Public Procurement, sponsored by the University of Rome Tor Vergata, in September 2023 in Cagliari, Italy. It examines how the use of domestic preferences in public procurement is creating tensions in the international trading system, notwithstanding disciplines intended to curb their use. It shows the pressures on the international procurement system as countries increasing resort to preferences and unilateral measures to advance domestic priorities, revealing deficiencies in the global system.
This chapter illustrates the United States’ pivot away from the liberalization of procurement markets to protection of its own procurement and its adoption of industrial policies that extend domestic preferences beyond government procurement. It shows how the US protectionist policies are reverberating among its trading partners, for example, leading Canada to consider the adoption of similar measures based on reciprocity. The chapter also delves into the European Union’s (EU) adoption of trade defense measures aimed at protecting its procurement interests. The chapter closes with an examination of barriers to China’s public procurement that are not restrained by international disciplines.
2. Jean Heilman Grier, Feature Comment, “European Court Restricts Foreign Firms’ Access to EU Procurement,” 66 The Government Contractor, ¶ 330 (Dec. 11, 2024).
The article, “European Court Restricts Foreign Firms’ Access to EU Procurement,” published by Thomson Reuters, examines the European Court of Justice’s recent precedent-setting ruling in Kolin Inşaat Turizm Sanayi ve Ticaret (C-652/22) that limits the rights of non-EU firms to participate in the huge EU public procurement market. It offers a more thorough analysis of the European Court decision than is found in the blog post, Court Restricts Access of Third Countries to EU Procurement, published in November.
In addition to providing a detailed analysis of the Court’s ruling and the procurement that formed the basis for the decision, the Feature Comment presents an overview of the procurement framework that applies to foreign firms’ participation in EU procurement and measures the EU has taken to protect its procurement interests, in particular its recent investigations under the International Procurement Instrument and the Foreign Subsidies Regulation. The Comment concludes with the implications of the ruling for US and other foreign suppliers.
Jean Heilman Grier
December 17, 2024