The Revised WTO Agreement on Government Procurement an Emerging Pillar of the World Trading System: Recent Developments

Abstract

This article reports on recent developments regarding the revised WTO Agreement on Government Procurement (GPA). 2014 was a year of significant developments concerning the Agreement and the first months of 2015 have shown significant movement. A new version of the Agreement, which manifests the Agreement’s increasing importance as an instrument for the promotion of good governance in emerging markets, in addition to market access, entered into force on 6 April 2014. The role that the revised GPA is playing in contributing to the world trading system, as a driver of global growth, is further demonstrated by its increasing membership. Since the entry into force of the revised Agreement in 2014, two accessions to the Agreement – those of Montenegro and New Zealand – were concluded and good progress was made on other pending accessions. Furthermore, work has been initiated on a new set of work programmes and other tools to enhance the transparency of the GPA Parties’ measures and operations under the Agreement. These represent an opportunity for Parties - and, in more limited ways, observers - to the GPA to shape the future of procurement policy with regard to such important issues as sustainable procurement and the furtherance of SME participation in procurement markets. Over and above its direct impact on the governments that are formally Parties to the WTO GPA, the Agreement also serves as the inspiration and template for chapters on government procurement that are incorporated in bilateral free trade or other preferential agreements around the globe, including recent "mega-regionals". This article elaborates on these themes and describes how each of these developments makes the GPA a new, emerging pillar of the international trading system.