Keeping you up to date with changes that impact global government procurement.
Today’s post is by Ron Southard, CEO at SafeSourcing Inc.
The GPA is a plurilateral agreement within the framework of the WTO, meaning that not all WTO members are parties to the Agreement. At present, the Agreement has 20 parties comprising 48 WTO members. 36 WTO members/observers participate in the GPA Committee as observers. Out of these, 12 members are in the process of acceding to the Agreement.
The fundamental aim of the GPA is to mutually open government procurement markets among its parties. As a result of several rounds of negotiations, the GPA parties have opened procurement activities worth an estimated US$ 1.7 trillion annually to international competition (i.e. to suppliers from GPA parties offering goods, services, or construction services).
The GPA is composed mainly of two parts: the text of the Agreement and parties’ market access schedules of commitments.
There has been some discussion that the current administration would like to pull out of this agreement even though the Is was a founding member. In an article by Doug Palmer for Politico and reported on MSN News titled Senators urge Trump not to withdraw from Government Procurement Agreement as there is a belief that it will allow both China and Russia to fill the void created by the US no longer participating.
Please visit SafeSourcing in order to keep up with content the evolution of changes and other educational content that impact procurement professionals and knowledge workers.
References……………………………………………………………………………………
- https://www.wto.org/english/tratop_e/gproc_e/gp_gpa_e.htm
- https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/senators-urge-trump-not-to-withdraw-from-government-procurement-agreement/ar-BB1bb2zv?ocid=msedgdhp
