The European Commission welcomes the entry into force on 6 April 2014 of the revised World Trade Organisation's Agreement on Government Procurement (GPA), the only legally binding agreement in the WTO on the subject of government procurement.
Internal Market and Services Commissioner Michel Barnier said: “I
warmly welcome the entry into force of the revised GPA concluded in
December 2011. The revised GPA will give businesses in the countries
that are party to the agreement significant additional opportunities on
each other’s’ public procurement markets. It will also make public
procurement rules in the GPA jurisdictions more transparent and
predictable, in line with the spirit of the recently adopted reforms of
EU public procurement rules. I invite all the GPA parties that have not
yet ratified it to do so and hope that the entry into force of the
revised GPA will pave the way for other WTO members to join in the near
future.”
Background
The GPA is the
only legally binding agreement in the WTO on the subject of government
procurement. In total, 15 parties are currently part of the agreement
(the EU with respect to its 28 Member States along with Armenia, Canada,
Hong Kong (China), Iceland, Israel, Japan, Korea, Liechtenstein, The
Netherlands with respect to Aruba, Norway, Singapore, Switzerland,
Chinese Taipei and the United States).
The negotiations on an updated
set of tender rules and additional market access commitments were
concluded successfully on 15 December 2011, with the final text of the
revised GPA being signed on 30 March 2012.
The revised GPA enters into
force 30 days following the deposit by two-thirds of GPA parties of
their instruments of ratification. Ten GPA parties have accepted the
protocol: the European Union, Liechtenstein, Norway, Chinese Taipei, the
United States, Hong Kong (China), Iceland, Singapore and Israel. On 6
April 2014 the revised GPA will enter into force for those GPA parties.
As Japan ratified the revised GPA on 17 March 2014, the revised GPA will
enter into force for Japan on 16 April 2014.
The revised GPA streamlines and
modernises the text of the GPA. Businesses in countries that are party
to the agreement will gain better market access because numerous
government entities (ministries and agencies) and new services and other
areas of the public procurement activities have been added to the GPA’s
scope of application. According to WTO estimates, the revision of the
GPA will bring extra procurement opportunities worth around
€ 80 billion.
Moreover, the revised GPA should
attract and make it easier for new members to join. Ten WTO Members
including China, Moldova, Montenegro, New Zealand and Ukraine, are in
the process of negotiating accession to the GPA.
