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Corée - Mesures affectant les marchés publics
Le 01 mai 2000 l’OMC a publié le rapport du Groupe spécial dans l’affaire “Corée - Mesures affectant les marchés publics”.
Corea - Medidas que afectan a la contratación pública
El 01 de mayo de 2000 la OMC hizo público el informe del Grupo especial sobre el caso “Corea - Medidas que afectan a la contratación pública”.
Korea - Measures Affecting Government Procurement
On 16 February 1999 the US requested consultations with Korea in respect of certain procurement practices of the Korean Airport Construction Authority (KOACA) and other entities concerned with the procurement of airport construction in Korea. The US claimed that such practices were inconsistent with Korea’s obligations under the Agreement on Government Procurement (GPA). These include practices relating to qualification for bidding as a prime contractor domestic partnering and the absence of access to challenge procedures that are in breach of the GPA. The US contended that KOACA and the other entities are within the scope of Korea’s list of central government entities as specified in Annex 1 of Korea’s obligations in Appendix I of the GPA and pursuant to Article I(1) of the GPA apply to the procurement of airport construction.
Assessing the Value of Future Accessions to the WTO Agreement on Government Procurement (GPA)
The WTO Agreement on Government Procurement (GPA) is a plurilateral Agreement meaning that it comprises only a subset of the full Membership of the WTO. Currently a number of WTO Members that are not Parties to the Agreement either are actively seeking accession to it have commitments to accede to the GPA in their respective WTO accession protocols or are on their own initiative looking at the potential pros and cons of accession. In this context there is a need for factual information concerning the potential consequences of GPA accession and a framework to assess related benefits and costs. Of interest is both the systemic value of such accessions – i.e. the value they will add to the extent of market access commitments under the Agreement – and their potential benefits and costs for individual acceding Parties. This Working Paper introduces new sources of information relevant to these topics (principally the statistical reports that have been circulated recently by GPA Parties) and shows their relevance to and usefulness in assessing the above-noted matters. The Paper presents estimates of the size of potential market access gains from pending and possible future GPA accessions based on simple extrapolations from the data sources identified. Next the Paper shows how the same data sources can assist in throwing light on the potential benefits and costs of GPA accession for individual WTO Members/countries contemplating accession. The latter use of the data is developed in the context of a more general discussion of the benefits and costs of GPA accession for individual WTO Members also drawing on existing literature qualitative aspects and "insights from the field" (i.e. our own work in advising and conducting seminars for such countries and other WTO Members).
The Relationship between Services Trade and Government Procurement Commitments
To date government procurement has been effectively carved out of the main multilateral rules of the WTO system. This paper examines the systemic and other ramifications of this exclusion from both an economic and a legal point of view. In addition to relevant elements of the WTO Agreements particularly the Agreement on Government Procurement (GPA) and the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) it derives insights from a large number of Regional Trade Agreements (RTAs) that embody substantive provisions on both government procurement and services trade. An important finding is that from an economic perspective general market access commitments with respect to services trade and commitments regarding government procurement of services are complementary and mutually reinforcing. In contrast from a legal point of view and at the multilateral level disciplines in the two areas have been "divided up" into two Agreements with different (but complementary) spheres of application: the key provisions regarding the scope of application of the GATS and the GPA make clear that each serves purposes that the other does not. Analysis of corresponding provisions of RTAs broadly supports and extends this finding. In light of the foregoing a question arises as to possible ways of deepening disciplines in this area. Part 5 sets out for reflection several related options: (i) the built-in mandate in the GATS for negotiations on services procurement (Article XIII:2); (ii) "multilateralization" of the GPA; (iii) the eactivation of work in the (currently inactive) WTO Working Group on Transparency in Government Procurement; and (iv) the taking up of relevant issues in the context of bilateral or regional negotiations. Overall we find that each of these possibilities has potential merits though none is without related challenges.
Infrastructure Provision and Africa’s Trade and Development Prospects
Transitioning from the post-2008 financial meltdown to a sustained period of global growth and prosperity involves a major challenge: how to ensure the effective management of international economic interdependence. Trade growth good governance and sustainable development constitute essential ingredients to any solution as is a fairer distribution of the gains of trade. Two issues stand out in this conversation. The first concerns the unfinished business of the global fight against the scourge of poverty which impacts one region more than most: Africa. At the same time a key pre-requisite for economic performance - affordable and efficient public infrastructure and services – remains lacking in this region – notably in Sub-Saharan Africa. To address this the region itself has initiated a major long-term continent-wide infrastructure development programme which is intended to fix this problem sustainably - namely the Programme for Infrastructure Development in Africa (PIDA). Its success foreshadows an economic transformation that will potentially usher in an emergent Africa in the 21st century. Secondly in one area of economic activity – trade in government procurement markets - the revised WTO Agreement on Government Procurement (GPA) is emerging as a multi-dimensional tool of trade governance and development. The thesis of this paper is that GPA participation by African countries - a prospect which to date they have declined to take up - holds strong potential to reinforce the positive effects of PIDA and to contribute to the region's growth and development more generally. Developing this thesis the paper examines the possible application of the GPA to support Africa's infrastructure programme drawing on its three dimensions of instrument of governance market access instrument and 'policy space' instrument in support of the development financial and trade needs of developing countries. Based on the analysis the paper concludes that the potential benefits outweigh the potential costs of participation in the GPA by African countries and accordingly that the GPA merits consideration by the region in this regard. A successful implementation of the infrastructure programme also portends a significant expansion in the size of the African government procurement market. Were African countries to accede to the Agreement in this context it would constitute not only a big rise in membership numbers but also a significant expansion in the value of market access under the Agreement. The broad outlines of a potential win-win scenario for both African countries and GPA Parties thus begin to emerge. The paper nonetheless acknowledges that delivering these benefits would involve significant practical and political challenges. It concludes that if the challenges can be overcome and the mutual benefits delivered the revised GPA would have been demonstrated as an effective tool for balancing flexibility and reciprocity in the government procurement sector consistent with sustainable development principles with the capability to deliver win-win benefits for a broad range of stakeholders in the post-2015 era.
The Revised WTO Agreement on Government Procurement (GPA)
The WTO's plurilateral Agreement on Government Procurement ("the GPA" or "the Agreement") is an important ongoing success story for the Organization. In March 2012 the GPA Parties completed a comprehensive revision of the Agreement encompassing both its text and coverage (market access commitments). The revised GPA the negotiating processes that led to its adoption and coming into force and the continuing gradual broadening of its membership are of therefore interest for the evolution of the international trading system. The GPA's successful renegotiation the continuing growth of its membership and its vitality as an instrument of public policy were not achieved through happenstance. The paper discusses a number of specific design features of the GPA that clearly facilitated the successful conclusion of the renegotiation and that as such may in the future be relevant to other areas of global trade liberalization. In addition to the Agreement's plurilateral nature of particular interest are the approach taken with respect to application of the most-favored-nation (MFN) principle in the Agreement; the GPA's continuing strong emphasis on principles of reciprocity in market access concessions; and its approach to special and differential treatment for developing countries in all of which it differs from approaches that are widely used in other WTO Agreements. Apart from the above the GPA revision is important for the merging of trade and good governance concerns that it exemplifies. As discussed in the paper the themes of governance and the sound management of public resources that are treated in the revised Agreement were not afterthoughts to the renegotiation; rather they permeated the revised text and received focused attention from the Parties in their own right. As well the GPA has direct implications for investment policy and for domestic economic reforms and is an important tool of e-commerce. And the revision has made possible very significant synergies between the GPA and other international instruments and activities in reducing barriers to participation and strengthening governance in public procurement markets. For all these reasons the revised Agreement is likely to have a wider impact than meets the eye and well merits the support and attention that it has received from the participating WTO Member governments.