Since President Trump announced his reciprocal tariff program on April 2, 2025, his administration has signed nine Agreements on Reciprocal Trade (ARTs) (with Argentina, Bangladesh, Cambodia, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Taiwan). It has also announced framework deals with the European Union, India, Japan, Korea, North Macedonia, Switzerland and Liechtenstein, Thailand, and Vietnam. In addition, it entered an agreement with the United Kingdom (UK) that sets out general terms for negotiations. About half of these agreements contain government procurement provisions. Several commit the trading partners to restrict access to their government procurement to countries with commitments under international trade agreements. Others address specific procurement issues. This post examines the provisions for each trading partner.

United Kingdom: The first agreement in President Trump’s second term to address government procurement was with the UK on general terms of an Economic Prosperity Agreement in May 2025. Both countries seek “to ensure more competitive, reciprocal, and secure access” to their procurement markets by reaffirming their procurement commitments under the WTO Government Procurement Agreement (GPA) and free trade agreements (FTAs). They also intend 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.

In subsequent agreements, the Trump administration obtained commitments to curtail the access to their partner’s government procurement of countries that are not GPA or FTA parties. Of this group, South Korea, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Taiwan, and North Macedonia are GPA parties and El Salvador is a party to an FTA with the United States.

South Korea: The US and South Korea issued in November 2025 a Joint Fact Sheet in which both countries agreed to “ensure that international procurement obligations provide a benefit to those countries that have taken on the same commitments.” 

Switzerland and Liechtenstein: Also in November 2025, the Trump administration reached a framework agreement for a reciprocal trade agreement with Switzerland and Liechtenstein. With a view to achieving greater reciprocal benefits from participation in their procurement markets, they reaffirmed their GPA commitments and expressed their intentions to clarify that states that are not party to the GPA or FTAs do not benefit from non-discriminatory treatment in central government procurement covered by the agreements.

Taiwan: In February 2026, the US and Taiwan signed a reciprocal trade agreement, agreeing to ensure that international procurement obligations benefit only those countries that have taken on the same commitments. To that end, Taiwan committed to prohibit the procurement of goods and services that it covers at the central government level under the GPA or an FTA “of non-eligible third countries,” which are countries other than GPA or FTA parties, beneficiary countries of trade preference programs, and least developed countries. 

North Macedonia: The US and North Macedonia in February 2026 issued a “Joint Statement on a Framework for United States-North Macedoni Agreement on Reciprocal, Fair, and Balanced Trade to strengthen their bilateral economic relationship. One of its key terms is to ensure that “international procurement obligations benefit only those countries that have taken on the same commitments. 

El Salvador: The US and El Salvador signed an ART in January 2026, which includes two procurement provisions. The first is a broad commitment by El Salvador to “ensure a level playing field in procurement for countries with which it has trade agreements” with government procurement commitments. A second specific commitment relates to procurement of cloud services. It provides that “if El Salvador requires cloud service providers to qualify for a certification or standard in order to be awarded a procurement contract,” it must “accept as equivalent to its domestic requirement any U.S. cloud computing service that meets the requirements established in the Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program (FedRamp) or a similar standard.”

Guatemala: The January 2026 US-Guatemala ART includes the same commitment relating to procurement of cloud services as the El Salvador ART. Guatemala, which is also a party to an FTA with the US, also committed to take steps to restrict access to central level procurement covered by FTA commitments of suppliers from non-FTA partners. It lists the same exemptions as the Taiwan agreement, which reflect those in the US Trade Agreements Act of 1979. That law prohibits federal agencies from procuring from countries without trade agreement obligations, unless certain exemptions apply.

Bangladesh: Bangladesh and the US signed a reciprocal trade agreement in February 2026. In that agreement, Bangladesh committed as part of its efforts to combat corruption, to adopt and maintain standards of conduct for the proper performance of public functions and the avoidance of conflicts of interest by public officials. In that regard, it expressed its intention to implement and enforce transparent procurement processes. 

Ecuador: The US and Ecuador signed an ART in March 2026 with two specific procurement commitments. Under one, Ecuador agreed to allow US companies to bid on Ministry of Defense procurement opportunities by amending Article 50 of its Regulation for the Procurement of Goods for National Defense to recognize export licenses as equivalent to Article 50 requirements for technology transfer. Under a second provision, it committed “to issue open public tenders for energy projects, including the Sacha oil concession, future power generation, critical mineral extraction and processing.”

To date, none of these agreements have been implemented. 

Jean Heilman Grier

April 10, 2026