EC welcomes the revised World Trade Organisation's Agreement on Government Procurement
7 Apr 2014 03:48 PM
The European Commission has welcomeds 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.
For
more information on the GPA agreement, see IP/11/1556 and MEMO/13/1016
For
further information see:
http://ec.europa.eu/internal_market/publicprocurement/rules/gpa-wto/index
_en.htm