In October, China submitted a new, long-awaited offer in its negotiations to join the WTO Government Procurement Agreement (GPA). Its new offer demonstrates that it is serious in moving its accession toward completion. It includes significant improvements,
Publication: An article, What are the Prospects for Concluding Work on China’s GPA Accession in 2015?” has been published in the Public Procurement Law Review (24 PPLR, Issue 6 (Nov. 2015)). The article examines three key questions that the parties to the
At a meeting on February 11, 2015, the WTO Committee on Government Procurement (Committee) reported progress in negotiations to expand the membership of the WTO Government Procurement Agreement (GPA). Of the WTO members currently engaged in negotiating
China’s latest offer moves toward coverage commensurate with the GPA parties. China advanced its negotiations to join the Government Procurement Agreement (GPA) with the recent submission of its 6th offer. That offer, submitted in late December, was in
The BRICS have not yet opened procurement under international agreements, but several have obligations to do so. None of the BRICS countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa) has joined the WTO Government Procurement Agreement (GPA). However,
The American Chamber of Commerce in China has pointed out deficiencies in China’s GPA offers that will need to be addressed to bring the procurement China will cover under the GPA to the level of other parties. As noted in an earlier posting, China
Despite some improvements, China’s latest GPA offer has only slightly narrowed the gap with the coverage of current GPA Parties. A recent posting outlined China’s slow progress over the past 12 years to meet its 2001 WTO commitment to join the
In 2014, China should fulfill its WTO commitment to join the Government Procurement Agreement. At the 24th U.S.-China Joint Commission on Commerce and Trade (JCCT) in December, China committed to “accelerate” its negotiations to accede to the WTO