Download or read book The WTO Government Procurement Agreement and Its Impacts on Trade written by Hejing Chen and published by . This book was released on 2011 with total page 33 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This paper assesses the impacts of the WTO Government Procurement Agreement (GPA) on trade in both goods and services among members using a gravity model applied to a panel dataset covering 20 OECD countries over the period 1996-2008 for trade in goods and 1999-2008 for trade in services. The agreement dates from 1996 and covers 41 (mainly OECD) countries (/areas). China is now negotiating possible membership. Little has been written on the GPA which is a plurilateral agreement covering both goods and services. It mutually extends commitments only to signatories, but has commitments going beyond those in the earlier GATT procurement code. Government service markets are large, and trade in these also has spillover effects on trade in services and goods. Results suggest that GPA membership has a positive impact on trade in both goods and services between parties as well as on outward foreign affiliate service sales. The number of GPA parties has a small marginal negative effect on trade in goods. Service exports also increase slightly with more parties participating in the GPA. The growth of government procurement contracts above the threshold under the GPA also fosters service imports, exports and outward foreign affiliate sales.
Download or read book Government Procurement in the WTO written by Sue Arrowsmith and published by Springer. This book was released on 2003-01-14 with total page 520 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the World Trade Organization regime, government procurement is largely excluded from the multilateral agreements. The 'plurilateral' WTO Agreement on Government Procurement, with its challenging accession procedures and limited number of signatories, cannot be said to succeed in its efforts to liberalize this area of trade activity–more than 10 percent of gross domestic product in most countries. This insightful and thoroughly researched study investigates the special sensitivities of government procurement that have left major trade barriers intact despite the WTO mandate that has proven so effective in other areas. Professor Arrowsmith examines the following crucial factors in depth: why and how procurement practices create barriers to trade the institutional structure for dealing with government procurement in the GATT/WTO system the impact of relevant WTO law on national legal systems the types of contracts and entities covered in the Agreement on Government Procurement how the National Treatment principle and the Most Favored Nation obligation affect government procurement rules of WTO contract award procedure and the controversy over their interpretation and revision the free trade vs. social and environmental issues question in the context of government procurement and the monitoring and enforcement of WTO procurement rules Throughout the presentation the author focuses on specific issues to illuminate the overall pattern of her legal analysis. For example, practical questions stemming from such activities as multi-phase tendering and electronic procurement are raised for special scrutiny. The legal literature of the WTO and its jurisprudence are frequently brought into Professor Arrowsmith's arguments. The result is a new work of major significance-a work that government procurement officials in every country, whatever their field, cannot afford to ignore. The value of Government Procurement in the WTO to lawyers and scholars in the field goes without saying. Review' Beneath its somewhat ordinary title is a work of extraordiary depth and quality. Although written by a law professor, this book is far more than a traditional legal textbook. In exceptionally lucid writing, the aithor sets forth a comprehensive study of the World Trade Organization (WTO) regulations ('Articles') on public procurement and their omplications.'
Download or read book the world trade organization s agreement on government procurement written by Bernard M. Hoekman and published by World Bank Publications. This book was released on 1995 with total page 30 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The WTO Regime on Government Procurement written by Sue Arrowsmith and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2011-04-28 with total page 895 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Originally an important but relatively obscure plurilateral instrument, the WTO Agreement on Government Procurement (GPA) is now becoming a pillar of the WTO system as a result of important developments since the Uruguay Round. This collection examines the issues and challenges that this raises for the GPA, as well as future prospects for addressing government procurement at a multilateral level. Coverage includes issues relating to pending accessions to the GPA, particularly those of developing countries with a large state sector such as China; the revised (provisionally agreed) GPA text of 2006, including provisions on electronic procurement and Special and Differential Treatment for Developing Countries; and procurement provisions in regional trade agreements and their significance for the multilateral system. Attention is also given to emerging issues, especially those concerning environmental, social and SME policy; competition law; and the implications of the recent economic crisis.
Download or read book Government procurement Market access transparencxy and multilateral trade rukles written by Simon J. Evenett and published by World Bank Publications. This book was released on 2004 with total page 27 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The effects on national welfare and market access of two important public procurement practices (discrimination and non-transparency) are analyzed with an eye to the ongoing discussions on procurement reform in the Doha Round. The analysis suggests that the welfare payoffs of adopting mechanisms that foster domestic competition and transparency are likely to be greater than the return to efforts to ban international discrimination. However improved transparency, which may well reduce corruption, is unlikely to also result in significant enhancements in market access. This in turn raises questions about the likely enforceability of a WTO agreement on transparency in procurement.
Download or read book The WTO Regime on Government Procurement written by Sue Arrowsmith and published by . This book was released on 2011 with total page 894 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Originally an important but relatively obscure plurilateral instrument, the WTO Agreement on Government Procurement (GPA) is now becoming a pillar of the WTO system as a result of important developments since the Uruguay Round. This collection examines the issues and challenges that this raises for the GPA, as well as future prospects for addressing government procurement at a multilateral level. Coverage includes issues relating to pending accessions to the GPA, particularly those of developing countries with a large state sector such as China; the revised (provisionally agreed) GPA text of 2006, including provisions on electronic procurement and Special and Differential Treatment for Developing Countries; and procurement provisions in regional trade agreements and their significance for the multilateral system. Attention is also given to emerging issues, especially those concerning environmental, social and SME policy; competition law; and the implications of the recent economic crisis.
Download or read book A Review on the Impact of Wto Gpa on Government Procurement in Hong Kong written by Yuk-Mei Cassandra Chan and published by Open Dissertation Press. This book was released on 2017-01-27 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This dissertation, "A Review on the Impact of WTO GPA on Government Procurement in Hong Kong" by Yuk-mei, Cassandra, Chan, 陳玉媚, was obtained from The University of Hong Kong (Pokfulam, Hong Kong) and is being sold pursuant to Creative Commons: Attribution 3.0 Hong Kong License. The content of this dissertation has not been altered in any way. We have altered the formatting in order to facilitate the ease of printing and reading of the dissertation. All rights not granted by the above license are retained by the author. Abstract: Abstract Government Procurement Agreement of World Trade Organization (WTO GPA) aims at ensuring that its contracting parties conduct government procurement in accordance with the two major principles of "non-discrimination" and "transparency" so as to obtain the best value for money. Being the party to WTO GPA, Hong Kong upholds these principles and the procedures adopted in government procurement are fully consistent with the provisions in the GPA. This dissertation reviews the impact of WTO GPA on government procurement in Hong Kong and argues that compliance with the provisions under the GPA alone is inadequate for effective outsourcing of government services. 4 DOI: 10.5353/th_b3642443 Subjects: Government purchasing - China - Hong Kong Government purchasing - Law and legislation Public contracts - China - Hong Kong Contracting out - China - Hong Kong
Download or read book The World Trade Organization s Agreement on Government Procurement Expanding Disciplines Declining Membership written by Petros C. Mavroidis and published by . This book was released on 1999 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: March 1995 The authors analyze the new Government Procurement Agreement (GPA) that was negotiated between a subset of General Agreement on Tariffs an Trade (GATT) members in the Uruguay Round, focusing especially on the expansion of coverage to services and on the strengthening of enforcement mechanisms. Coverage objective were substantially achieved, although commitments contain many exceptions for services. The transparency of signatories' procurement practices was enhanced and enforcement provisions were strengthened, particularly by the introduction of a bid-protest challenge mechanism, which allows private parties (firms) to invoke the Agreement before national courts. (A potential problem: domestic courts could produce divergent interpretations of the GPA). Unlike most of the other Tokyo Round codes - for example, the agreements on technical barriers to trade (standards), import licensing, customs valuation, subsidies, and antidumping - the GPA could not be multilateralized. Its disciplines apply only to World Trade Organization (WTO) members that have signed it. Public procurement represents a major source of demand for goods and services in most countries. Getting domestic procurement policies right can therefore have major effects on welfare. And improving developing countries' access to global procurement markets could help induce governments to adopt multilateral rules, if those could be shown to be in their interests. The authors explore why only a limited number of countries have signed the GPA. They suggest the pursuit of tariffication as one avenue through which the Agreement might be expanded to cover all WTO members. In the process, the GPA could be improved economically by eliminating current provisions that allow for measures with quota-like effects, and by weakening incentives to seek absolute sector-by-sector reciprocity.
Download or read book The WTO and Government Procurement written by Simon J. Evenett and published by Edward Elgar Publishing. This book was released on 2006 with total page 574 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume is a careful selection of the leading legal and economic papers analysing international discrimination in government purchasing. It also includes the WTO agreement that seeks to curb such discrimination. Studies of individual country experiences are also featured, adding a practical dimension to what often appears to be a narrow technical debate. This authoritative and wide-ranging volume will provide trade negotiators, other government officials including purchasing officers, and scholars with a thorough grounding so as to effectively assess proposals for further international rules on government procurement practices, be they in bilateral, regional, or multilateral arenas.
Download or read book Most favoured nation Treatment written by United Nations Conference on Trade and Development and published by . This book was released on 2010 with total page 164 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The publication contains an explanation of Most Favored Nation (MFN) treatment and some of the key issues that arise in its negotiation, particularly the scope and application of MFN treatment to the liberalization and protection of foreign investors in recent treaty practice. The paper provides policy options as regards the traditional application of MFN treatment and identifies reactions by States to the unexpected broad use of MFN treatment, and provides several drafting options, such as specifying or narrowing down the scope of application of MFN treatment to certain types of activities, clarifying the nature of "treatment" under the IIA, clarifying the comparison that an arbitral tribunal needs to undertake as well as a qualification of the comparison "in like circumstances" or excluding its use in investor-State cases.
Download or read book Government Procurement written by Simon J. Evenett and published by . This book was released on 2013 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The authors examine the effects on national welfare and market access of two public procurement practices-discrimination against foreign suppliers of goods and services and nontransparency of the procedures used to allocate government contracts to firms. Both types of policies have become prominent in international trade negotiations, including the Doha Round of the World Trade Organization (WTO) trade talks. Traditionally, the focus of international trade agreements has been on market access. However, many developing countries have opposed the launch of negotiations to extend the principle of nondiscrimination to procurement. As a result, the current focus in the Doha Round is on an effort to launch discussions on agreeing to principles of transparency in procurement. While transparency will not constrain the ability of governments to discriminate in favor of domestic firms, it could nonetheless improve market access by reducing corruption. The authors assess and compare the impact of eliminating discrimination and fostering greater domestic competition in procurement markets and enhancing transparency in state contracting. Their analysis concludes that greater domestic competition on procurement markets and greater transparency will improve economic welfare. But there is no clear-cut effect on market access of ending discrimination or improving transparency. This mismatch between market access and welfare effects may account for the slower progress in negotiating procurement disciplines in trade agreements than for traditional border measures such as tariffs, given that market access is the driving force behind trade agreements.
Download or read book The World Trade Organization s Agreement on Government Procurement written by Bernard Hoekman and published by . This book was released on 2016 with total page 30 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: March 1995The authors analyze the new Government Procurement Agreement (GPA) that was negotiated between a subset of General Agreement on Tariffs an Trade (GATT) members in the Uruguay Round, focusing especially on the expansion of coverage to services and on the strengthening of enforcement mechanisms. Coverage objectives were substantially achieved, although commitments contain many exceptions for services. The transparency of signatories - procurement practices was enhanced and enforcement provisions were strengthened, particularly by the introduction of a bid-protest challenge mechanism, which allows private parties (firms) to invoke the Agreement before national courts. (A potential problem: domestic courts could produce divergent interpretations of the GPA). Unlike most of the other Tokyo Round codes - for example, the agreements on technical barriers to trade (standards), import licensing, customs valuation, subsidies, and antidumping - the GPA could not be multilateralized. Its disciplines apply only to World Trade Organization (WTO) members that have signed it. Public procurement represents a major source of demand for goods and services in most countries. Getting domestic procurement policies right can therefore have major effects on welfare. And improving developing countries - access to global procurement markets could help induce governments to adopt multilateral rules, if those could be shown to be in their interests. The authors explore why only a limited number of countries have signed the GPA. They suggest the pursuit of tariffication as one avenue through which the Agreement might be expanded to cover all WTO members. In the process, the GPA could be improved economically by eliminating current provisions that allow for measures with quota-like effects, and by weakening incentives to seek absolute sector-by-sector reciprocity.
Download or read book Law and Policy in Public Purchasing written by Bernard M. Hoekman and published by . This book was released on 1997 with total page 368 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Government Procurement Act (GPA) aims to subject public purchasing to international competition. However, many developing countries, along with others such as Australia and New Zealand, have refused to join the GPA on the grounds that it is not in their best interest. This volume examines the GPA and discusses what could be done to improve it with a view to expanding its membership. The contributors focus on four broad issues: the negotiating history, content, and operation of the GPA; the economics of the GPA's rules and disciplines; the implementation of the GPA in domestic legal systems; and, finally, possible alternatives to - and improvements on - the current set of multilateral rules and disciplines. Offering the most comprehensive assessment of the subject available, the volume will be of interest to scholars of international trade, as well as people whose work involves them in government procurement - from the buyers and sellers of goods and services to those concerned with legal aspects of public purchasing.
Download or read book The WTO Agreements written by World Trade Organization and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2017-11-16 with total page 544 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This publication contains the text of the WTO's founding agreement, the 1994 Marrakesh Agreement Establishing the World Trade Organization, and its Annexes, including all amendments and additions since its entry into force until September 2017. These include an amendment to the WTO's intellectual property agreement (TRIPS Agreement) aimed at improving developing countries' access to medicines, the WTO's Trade Facilitation Agreement, which entered into force in February 2017, an amendment adopted in July 2017 to extend the frequency of peer review periods under the Trade Policy Review Mechanism as of 2019, and the amended Government Procurement Agreement. This publication updates and replaces The Legal Texts: The Results of the Uruguay Round of Multilateral Trade Negotiations, which was first printed in 1994.
Download or read book Does the World Trade Organization Government Procurement Agreement Deliver What It Promises written by Bedri Kamil Onur Tas and published by . This book was released on 2017 with total page 28 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The revised World Trade Organization (WTO) Government Procurement Agreement (GPA), which came into force on April 6, 2014, provides a limited number of WTO Members with a framework for ensuring that the tenders scheduled under the Appendix to WTO GPA are conducted in a competitive, non-discriminatory, and transparent manner satisfying the conditions on integrity. The purpose of this paper is to analyze empirically whether the WTO GPA is effective in promoting non-discriminant, open, transparent, competitive and efficient government procurement. To study this question, we make use of the micro-level data set released recently by the European Union (EU) covering more than 3 million tenders conducted in the European Economic Area (EEA), Switzerland and Macedonia during the years 2006-2015. We have four major results. First, the likelihood that the contract is awarded to a foreign firm is significantly higher when the contract is covered by the WTO GPA. Second, number of bidders are significantly higher in WTO GPA covered procurements. Third, we find that corruption risk is lower in WTO GPA covered tenders. We use two measures to assess corruption risk: procurements that receive only one bid, and the connection strength of a winning firm in the network of suppliers. We find that single bid procurement is significantly lower in tenders covered by the WTO GPA. Additionally, we conclude that the WTO GPA provides the opportunity for less connected firms to win contracts. Finally, we find that the WTO GPA does not have a significant effect of procurement costs.
Download or read book Green Public Procurement under WTO Law written by Rika Koch and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2020-08-31 with total page 239 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book investigates the strategic use of public procurement as a way to establish “buying green” as a common practice – not only in the EU, but all over the world. However, imposing environmental requirements may affect the conditions of competition between suppliers, especially between local and foreign ones. This is particularly relevant for signatory states to the Government Procurement Agreement (GPA), a plurilateral WTO agreement that aims at liberalizing public procurement markets. So how can these countries strike a balance between trade concerns and using the environmental potential of public procurement? What scope does the GPA 2012 leave for environmental criteria and how are signatory states making use of it? The need for answers to these questions is becoming even more pressing with the increasing use of green public procurement (GPP). This book discusses approaches to finding legal solutions to this question, using a multilayered approach to do so: In a first step, an analysis of the pertinent GPA provisions serves to delineate the scope for GPP under WTO law. In a second step, an evaluation of the implementation of the respective provision at the regional and national level by the EU and Switzerland helps reveal the impact of the GPA on its signatory states. While the book chiefly focuses on the legal framework for GPP, it also takes into account the latest developments in jurisprudence and policy initiatives. It concludes by proposing practical solutions regarding the specific design of GPP policies and measures in compliance with the GPA. The comparative approach applied in the book, focusing on the implementation of the WTO/GPA by two selected signatories, makes it an informative and insightful resource for practitioners, policymakers and legal scholars from all GPA signatory countries, extending its relevance beyond the selected examples (the EU and Switzerland).
Download or read book The WTO Government Procurement Agreement as a Commitment Device written by Benedikt Dengler and published by . This book was released on 2018 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This paper presents novel reduced form evidence on the association between international trade agreements that include disciplines on public procurement practices reflected in the WTO Agreement on Government Procurement (GPA) and preferential trade agreements (PTAs) and public sector imports following the 2008 financial crisis. The results are suggestive of such international disciplines acting as an effective commitment device: GPA membership is associated with a significantly higher import share following the crisis than is observed for countries that are not members. We also find evidence that the GPA and PTAs that cover public procurement are partial substitutes.
