Table 1 - uploaded by Robert D. Anderson
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The majority of regional trade agreements (RTAs) that have been notified to the World Trade Organization (WTO) in recent years contain provisions on government procurement, whether of a detailed or a limited nature. Such provisions are of interest for a number of reasons, some specific to the field of government procurement and some general or syst...
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... Content-wise, the GPA promoted competition on government procurement as much as possible. It relied on core principles, such as transparency, good governance, and non-discrimination (Anderson et al. 2012(Anderson et al. , 2013. These principles were designed to enhance competition for contracts, stimulate an improved "value for money" setup for public contracts, and avert a return to protectionism. ...
This paper attempts to go beyond actor-centered explanations of the European Union's (EU) presence in regulatory politics by examining the role of the EU in the diffusion of regulatory norms and practices. We explore the international diffusion of public procurement policy, to which multiple organizations and especially the EU and the World Trade Organization have made an active contribution. Using the “opportunity-presence-capability” scheme, we argue that the EU is actively co-shaping the global agenda on public procurement, mainly as a result of the “opportunity” and “presence” dimensions of its global actorness and its role in the horizontal diffusion of public procurement regulations between international organizations. For “EU as a global actor” literature to offer valuable explanations, an in-depth analysis of its relationship with other international organizations, such as the World Trade Organization, reveals significant interactions and the co-shaping of policy agendas.
... This chapter will consider the public procurement aspects of negotiations towards a TTIP between the EU and the US. The term "public procurement" refers broadly to the process followed by public bodies when contracting with private sector firms for the acquisition of goods, works and services (Arrowsmith and Anderson, 2011). Recent high profile examples of this include the California High-Speed Rail Authority's advertising and award of a $1.2 billion contract for the construction of a high-speed railway system in California in the United States-awarded, in 2014, to a US subsidiary of Spanish firm ACS (AFP, 2014)− and, in the UK, the advertising and award of a £500 million Department for Work and Pensions contract for services for the assessment of whether or not sick and elderly claimants qualify for "out of work" welfare payments -awarded, in 2014, to US firm Maximus (DWP, 2014). ...
... The inclusion of market access rules on public procurement in the TTIP negotiations is not surprising: they are an increasingly common feature of bilateral trade agreements (Anderson et al, 2011). Of the 13 bilateral trade agreements concluded by the EU and third countries between 1970 and 2000, none had a separate chapter or article on public procurement, since 2000 13 of 24 (54%) such agreements have had a separate public procurement provision (Cernat and Kutlina-Dimitrova, 2015, p.6). ...
... In relation to trade agreements concluded with third countries not party to the WTO's GPA (see section 2.4 below), one common approach is for the EU to seek to require GPA commitments, e.g. an agreement containing a reference to the GPA text (Anderson et al, 2011).With respect to the US and EU trading systems, however, both the US and EU have highly developed regulatory systems on public procurement (see sections 2.2 and 2.3 below), as was the case with respect to the US-Canada Agreement on Government Procurement (concluded on February 12 th 2010) and the EU-Canada Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) (concluded on September26 th 2014). In view of this, the EU, in particular because of dissatisfaction with US coverage commitments under the GPA (see section 4), especially given the role of infrastructure spending in the US recovery following the 2007/2008 financial crisis, has seized upon the opportunity presented by the TTIP. ...
http://www.cidob.org/en/publications/publication_series/monographs/monographs/the_transatlantic_trade_and_investment_partnership_ttip_negotiations_between_the_eu_and_the_usa
... The process of GPA accession has two main aspects: first, verification of the consistency of the acceding Party's national legislation with the norms and requirements of the GPA; and second, negotiations on coverage issues (in particular, on the "Appendix I Offer" of the acceding Party which sets out the entities to be covered and other aspects of coverage). Where a WTO Member acceding to the GPA has already committed itself to 37 Section 2.4 draws on Anderson, Müller, Osei-Lah, Pardo de Leon, & Pelletier (2011); Anderson & Müller (2008). 38 Obviously, this may be particularly true for parties to RTAs that are not also Parties to the WTO GPA. ...
... In this regard, currently a central debate regarding the system concerns the extent to which RTAs serve either as "building blocks" of, or "obstacles to", multilateral liberalization. 39 Recent analyses of these issues have cast important light on these questions in the government procurement context (see Anderson, Müller, Osei-Lah, Pardo de Leon, & Pelletier 2011; and Ueno, 2013). Building on these analyses, this paper provides relevant information on the treatment of government procurement in 250 RTAs. ...
... This approach is predominant in agreements concluded by the EU and EFTA in their relations with North African and Middle Eastern countries. It is also often found in the agreements of Turkey The third major approach (embodied in 68 (24%) of the agreements examined (see the list of 68 RTAs in Table 1The main findings of the analysis of the treatment of government procurement in RTAs (Anderson, Müller, Osei-Lah, Pardo de Leon, & Pelletier, 2011) are as follows: First, the provisions on government procurement in the RTAs notified to the WTO – both those that deal with procurement in one or two basic provisions and those that address it in a more detailed fashion – are linked to the GPA in important ways. To begin with, often at least one party to the agreement is a GPA Party. ...
The treatment of services in preferential trade agreements provides an important point of comparison with their treatment in the multilateral trading system. Recently, several studies have examined aspects of the treatment of services in PTAs. These analyses have provided insights into a number of important questions: (a) To what extent are countries willing to make broader and deeper commitments regarding services liberalization in PTAs as compared to the GATS? (b) Why is this so? (c) What costs does the proliferation of such commitments entail? (d) Can such commitments serve as building blocks for multilateral liberalization, or are they more likely to undermine it? An important related question concerns possibilities for the eventual multilateralization of commitments on services liberalization in PTAs (Baldwin, Evenett, and Low, 2007). To date, analysis of the treatment of services in PTAs has focused on provisions governing trade in services that are purchased by private entities. These provisions are important in their own right and provide a logical point of comparison with the treatment of services in the GATS. The focus on commercial trade in services overlooks another important component of services trade, however, namely the government procurement of services. To the extent that it is regulated by PTAs, government procurement is usually governed not by the general services provisions of such agreements, but by their provisions on the government procurement of services and goods.
If government authorities are committed to a more sustainable economy, a redirection of their public procurement can help to create the critical mass necessary for the existence and viability of important markets for the production of technologies, services and products with a reduced environmental impact (clean energy, electrical cars, smart buildings, etc.) and make an important contribution to the achievement of the goals established in relation to the fight against the main environmental and other problems at the local, national and international level. Although the preamble to the Government Procurement Agreement of 2012 does not mention the objective of sustainable development (contrary to the preamble to the Agreement establishing the World Trade Organization), it is very relevant that trade is mentioned nine times in the current Sustainable Development Goals, that national governments have formally recognized the role of public procurement in supporting sustainability (Goal 12.7) and that the WTO Government Procurement Agreement, far from being an obstacle for its Parties to use public procurement to pursue the objective of sustainable development, is increasingly a central force in public procurement worldwide.
Government procurement is gaining strategic importance, not only for economic affluence but also for promoting non-economic values such as the environment, labour standards, human rights, and national security. The assessment of horizontal policies within international rules varies depending on legal instruments, including the Agreement on Government Procurement (GPA) and specific rules in preferential trade agreements (PTAs) concerning government procurement. Among these, the EU-Japan Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) stands out as a leading agreement in advancing rules related to horizontal policies. While the EPA does not revolutionise the management of government procurement and horizontal policies, some additional provisions in the Agreement could have significant implications. Specifically, due to the introduction of the chapter on trade and sustainable development, non-trade experts can now engage in a more reliable assessment of government procurement practices. At the same time, there is still room for improvement in the EPA. It would be preferable to include provisions that encourage the incorporation of horizontal policies. However, the rules governing the relationship between government procurement and horizontal policies do not necessarily have to be embodied in the agreement’s provisions. They can be developed through soft laws such as guidelines and information sharing on best practices. One significant advantage of the EPA is its capacity to gradually improve the rules in a flexible and efficient manner.
What have WTO accessions contributed to the rules-based multilateral trading system? What demands have been made by original WTO members on acceding governments? How have the acceding governments fared? This volume of essays offers critical readings on how WTO accession negotiations have expanded the reach of the multilateral trading system not only geographically but also conceptually, clarifying disciplines and pointing the way to their further strengthening in future negotiations. Members who have acceded since the WTO was established now account for twenty per cent of total WTO membership. In the age of globalization there is an increased need for a universal system of trade rules. Accession negotiations have been used by governments as an instrument for domestic reforms, and one lesson from the accession process is that there are contexts which lead multilateral trade negotiations to successful outcomes even in the complex and multi-polar twenty-first century economic environment.
What have WTO accessions contributed to the rules-based multilateral trading system? What demands have been made by original WTO members on acceding governments? How have the acceding governments fared? This volume of essays offers critical readings on how WTO accession negotiations have expanded the reach of the multilateral trading system not only geographically but also conceptually, clarifying disciplines and pointing the way to their further strengthening in future negotiations. Members who have acceded since the WTO was established now account for twenty per cent of total WTO membership. In the age of globalization there is an increased need for a universal system of trade rules. Accession negotiations have been used by governments as an instrument for domestic reforms, and one lesson from the accession process is that there are contexts which lead multilateral trade negotiations to successful outcomes even in the complex and multi-polar twenty-first century economic environment.
What have WTO accessions contributed to the rules-based multilateral trading system? What demands have been made by original WTO members on acceding governments? How have the acceding governments fared? This volume of essays offers critical readings on how WTO accession negotiations have expanded the reach of the multilateral trading system not only geographically but also conceptually, clarifying disciplines and pointing the way to their further strengthening in future negotiations. Members who have acceded since the WTO was established now account for twenty per cent of total WTO membership. In the age of globalization there is an increased need for a universal system of trade rules. Accession negotiations have been used by governments as an instrument for domestic reforms, and one lesson from the accession process is that there are contexts which lead multilateral trade negotiations to successful outcomes even in the complex and multi-polar twenty-first century economic environment.
What have WTO accessions contributed to the rules-based multilateral trading system? What demands have been made by original WTO members on acceding governments? How have the acceding governments fared? This volume of essays offers critical readings on how WTO accession negotiations have expanded the reach of the multilateral trading system not only geographically but also conceptually, clarifying disciplines and pointing the way to their further strengthening in future negotiations. Members who have acceded since the WTO was established now account for twenty per cent of total WTO membership. In the age of globalization there is an increased need for a universal system of trade rules. Accession negotiations have been used by governments as an instrument for domestic reforms, and one lesson from the accession process is that there are contexts which lead multilateral trade negotiations to successful outcomes even in the complex and multi-polar twenty-first century economic environment.
