Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of contributors
- Foreword by Pascal Lamy
- Perspective of the Chairman of the WTO Committee on Government Procurement, Nicholas Niggli (Switzerland)
- Preface
- Disclaimer
- PART I The WTO regime on government procurement
- 1 The WTO regime on government procurement: past, present and future
- PART II Expanding the scope of the Agreement on Government Procurement: accession and coverage
- PART III Revision of the procedural rules and other transparency provisions of the Agreement on Government Procurement
- PART IV Developing countries in the WTO procurement regime
- PART V Economic and social development (horizontal policies) in government procurement
- PART VI Enforcement and remedies
- PART VII Multilateralism and regionalism
- PART VIII Challenges and new directions
- Index
- References
1 - The WTO regime on government procurement: past, present and future
from PART I - The WTO regime on government procurement
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 07 September 2011
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of contributors
- Foreword by Pascal Lamy
- Perspective of the Chairman of the WTO Committee on Government Procurement, Nicholas Niggli (Switzerland)
- Preface
- Disclaimer
- PART I The WTO regime on government procurement
- 1 The WTO regime on government procurement: past, present and future
- PART II Expanding the scope of the Agreement on Government Procurement: accession and coverage
- PART III Revision of the procedural rules and other transparency provisions of the Agreement on Government Procurement
- PART IV Developing countries in the WTO procurement regime
- PART V Economic and social development (horizontal policies) in government procurement
- PART VI Enforcement and remedies
- PART VII Multilateralism and regionalism
- PART VIII Challenges and new directions
- Index
- References
Summary
Introduction to the chapter
Government procurement – the purchase of goods, construction services and other services required by government bodies – accounts for a substantial proportion of GDP, and it is well recognized that discrimination in this area (intentional or otherwise), as well as other practices, creates significant barriers to trade. Thus government procurement is of great potential interest for international trade regimes, including the WTO. However, dealing with government procurement was not generally a priority in the early phase of the multilateral trading system, nor in early regional and bilateral free trade agreements. Rather, the initial efforts of those responsible for negotiating these arrangements tended to focus on more conventional trade barriers, such as tariffs and quotas, both because these were perceived as more important (and their removal a necessary initial step for access to government markets in any case) and because of the particular sensitivity of government procurement. As other trade barriers have diminished, however, the WTO, in common with many other regimes, has increasingly turned its attention to opening up public markets: this is evidenced clearly by chapter 20 of this volume which examines procurement provisions in regional trade agreements notified to the WTO since 2000. Most recently, the importance of government procurement has been enhanced by the increased importance of public infrastructure investment and other procurement activities as an aspect of world economic activity in the context of the recent economic crisis and as a consequence of continuing high growth and, consequently, infrastructure demand in emerging economies such as China and India.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The WTO Regime on Government ProcurementChallenge and Reform, pp. 3 - 58Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2011
References
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