India’s possible accession to the Agreement on Government Procurement: What are the pros and cons?

This chapter examines the pros and cons of accession to the WTO Agreement on Government Procurement (GPA) by India. This discussion is of relevance since, despite consistently resisting pressure to negotiate government procurement provisions in its regional and bilateral trade agreements, in February 2010 the Government of India became an observer to the GPA. India’s decision to be a GPA observer comes at a time when interest in the GPA appears to be growing and signals that major developing countries such as India are assessing their interests in relation to GPA accession.