In its recent tariff and investment agreement with Switzerland and Liechtenstein, the Trump administration obtained a commitment from the two countries to curtail the access to their government procurement of countries that are not parties to the WTO Government Procurement Agreement (GPA) or free trade agreements (FTAs). This commitment responds to a concern set out in the Report to the President on the America First Trade Policy, according to an Executive Summary published in April 2025. Its concern was that some GPA partners open their procurement markets to countries that do not have commitments under the plurilateral agreement such as China. The US wants those parties to bar participation in their GPA-covered procurement by countries that are not parties to the GPA, based on its contention that such participation impairs US access to procurement to which it should have preferential market access as a GPA party. This post examines the procurement commitment in the Switzerland-Liechtenstein agreement, as well as an earlier agreement with the United Kingdom (UK) that has enacted a law that does not guarantee procurement access by third countries.
On November 14, 2025, the United States, Switzerland, and Liechtenstein agreed to a Framework for an Agreement on Fair, Balanced, and Reciprocal Trade, with the US commitment to reduce its “reciprocal” tariffs on the countries from 39% to 15% as the centerpiece. Other areas that the participants intend to address in their negotiations include achieving “greater reciprocal benefits from participation in their procurement markets.”
In their Joint Statement, the three trading partners expressed their intention to strengthen supply chain resilience by addressing non-market policies of third countries. To that end, they reaffirmed their commitments under the GPA and other binding international procurement obligations and intend to clarify that states that are not party to such agreements do not benefit from non-discriminatory treatment in central government procurement covered by the agreements. According to a White House Fact Sheet, Switzerland and Liechtenstein will close loopholes that currently allow countries that are not GPA or FTA parties to access their procurement markets, in order “to ensure greater reciprocal benefits for U.S. products and services."
How the two countries will fulfill the commitment to restrict access to their procurement remains to be seen and may be subject to negotiations. The Trump trade team could seek enactment of a legal measure, comparable to the US’s Trade Agreements Act of 1979, which generally prohibits federal agencies from purchasing from non-GPA and non-FTA parties in procurement covered by the GPA, subject to certain exceptions, such as the non-availability of the good or service in the US or from GPA and FTA partners.
Another Trump tariff agreement that addresses government procurement -- in the context of economic security -- is the May 2025 agreement with the UK. In the general terms of the US-UK Economic Prosperity Agreement, both countries seek “to ensure more competitive, reciprocal, and secure access” to their procurement markets by reaffirming their procurement commitments under the GPA and their respective FTAs. They also expressed the intention to discuss the implementation of their respective procurement commitments, including through the UK’s National Security Unit for Procurement and its powers under the Procurement Act 2023, which provides that non-“treaty states” are not guaranteed non-discriminatory treatment in UK procurement.
The tariff agreements that the Trump administration has negotiated with other GPA parties, namely, the European Union, Japan, and Korea, do not (at least not yet) include commitments to restrict access to their procurement. However, it is likely the US is pursuing such commitments in the unfinished or still-to-be negotiated agreements.
As discussed in a prior post, one GPA party, Canada, began implementing a new reciprocal procurement policy in July 2025. Under that policy, suppliers from countries that do not open their procurement markets to Canada can be excluded from its federal procurement.
Jean Heilman Grier
December 4, 2025
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