Government procurement refers to purchases of goods or services, including consultancies and professional services, construction, maintenance and material supply contracts, facilities contracts, capital equipment and property and leasing arrangements, undertaken by governments for their own consumption.
Government procurement accounts for a significant part of the economy of many countries. Although a government procurement agreement did not form part of the core WTO agreement, a number of WTO member governments signed a plurilateral agreement on government procurement. However, this was optional and did not go far enough for private sector and governments vying for new opportunities for profit and control through the liberalization of this important area. Government procurement provisions in free trade agreements stipulate that governments (national and sub-national) must treat overseas tenders no less favourably than local ones. Many bilateral agreements include provisions which already commit governments to open up this lucrative market to transnational corporations. This issue has been a contentious sticking point for Malaysia in its negotiations with Washington on an FTA and India in its negotiations with the EU. Malaysia’s procurement policy has kept foreign companies from bidding for state contracts, which US negotiators object to.
29-Oct-2014
Just Style
EU apparel industry wants a provision forbidding the US Department of Defense from buying products not 100% ’made in the US’ to be repealed by TTIP — but its US counterpart is fighting back.
21-Oct-2014
Global Rail News
The European Union has agreed to omit three of Japan’s biggest rail companies from a trade agreement at the WTO in the hope that it will open up the Japanese market to European suppliers under a possible bilateral FTA.
5-Oct-2014
Newfoundland and Labrador Independent
The CETA will give private European companies the right to bid on Canadian government tenders for goods and services — among them schools, hospitals, airports, public transit, ports, and hydro projects — down to the municipal level.
1-Sep-2014
The Courier
UK Government has hit back at critics of a new trade deal, insisting it will create jobs, increase wages and boost the UK economy by £10 billion a year.
4-Jul-2014
Huffington Post
As Americans celebrate July 4th this year, US trade negotiators are locked behind closed doors at a Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) negotiating round in Ottawa gutting Buy American policies.
4-Jul-2014
Oxfam America
The controversy over government procurement of seeds in El Salvador is a clear example of how US free trade agreements with developing countries can undermine national development goals, as Oxfam warned during the negotiation and debate over CAFTA, writes Stephanie Burgos.
26-Jun-2014
Bernama
The European Union has agreed to accept a request for exempting three Japanese railway operators from obligations under a global government procurement pact, Japan’s Jiji Press news agency reports.
26-Nov-2013
Business Standard
Belgium has demanded greater access to public procurement market for large-scale contracts under the proposed India-EU free trade agreement (FTA), whose fate already hangs in balance. The country also stressed on further tariff reduction on goods by India.
12-Jul-2013
Public Service Europe
Topics where EU and US politicians and stakeholders’ interests clash — such as public procurement, data protection, financial services and agricultural issues like geographical indicators and sanitary and phytosanitary measures – will prove the most problematic during talks.
12-May-2012
Malaysian Insider
The European Union’s demand for access to government procurement in its free trade agreement with Malaysia need not harm the 40-year-old policy of affirmative action for Bumiputeras, insists its envoy in KL.
1-Apr-2012
India will not concede to EU’s demand that European companies be allowed to participate in procurements made by public sector enterprises in the country as part of a free trade agreement being negotiated.
12-Mar-2012
An impending trade deal with Europe could spell the end of procurement strategies like the one used to award the $25-billion shipbuilding contract to Irving Shipbuilding Inc. in Halifax.
28-Jan-2012
Saskatoon should request an exemption to a large-scale free-trade agreement being negotiated between Canada and Europe, a Saskatoon city committee agreed.
25-Nov-2011
Sydney Morning Herald
Selling Aussie technology to the US military just got easier.
20-Oct-2011
European Voice
The European Union is hoping to use next week’s summit with China (25 October) to press the Chinese authorities on obstacles facing European investors and to discuss access for European bidders to China’s public-procurement market.
26-Aug-2011
Livemint
India has convinced both New Zealand and Australia not to include the subject in the ongoing negotiations
22-Aug-2011
For over four years now, India has been negotiating a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with the European Union (EU) - the largest trade and investment deal the country has ever embarked on. As much as New Delhi expects to lure the European market and investments closer to India, the actual consequences for the country’s economy could be dire: the open up of public procurement, the deregulation of the banking, automobile, retail and mining industries plus the adverse impact the deal will have in small-scale farmers make of this FTA a counter-productive undertaking.
9-Jun-2011
Last weekend, municipal councillors from across Canada met in Halifax for the annual Federation of Canadian Municipalities convention. On the agenda were infrastructure renewal, how to best deliver social services, and how cities should confront climate change. But if you were following the FCM’s Twitter hashtag Saturday morning, you’ll have seen that trade was perhaps the most controversial topic of discussion, namely the Canada-EU free trade agreement.
16-Dec-2010
Free-trade talks between Canada and the European Union will enter a crucial phase early next year, when the provinces will be asked to clarify where they stand on opening their procurement contracts to foreign bidders — a potential dealbreaker for the Europeans.
15-Oct-2010
600 Action News
The National Farmers Union is raising alarm bells over a proposed trade agreement between Canada and the European Union.
