Accession Negotiations. Any WTO member may accede to the GPA on terms agreed between that member the GPA parties that its procurement system complies with the GPA. Many members that have joined the WTO since 1995 committed to seek GPA membership as part of their terms for accession, including China and Russia—both of which continue to be engaged in GPA accession negotiations. Security and General Exceptions. The GPA contains a national security exception, broadly in line with GATT 1994’s Article XXI. The exception states that a party is allowed to take “any action or not [disclose] any information that it considers necessary for the protection of its essential security interests relating to the procurement of arms, ammunition or war materials, or to procurement indispensable for national security or for national defense purposes.” In addition, the GPA also contains general exceptions modeled after GATT’s Article XX. These include—but are not limited to—safety, human, animal, or plant life or health, and philanthropic institutions. Issues for Congress As the 117th Congress and the Xxxxx Administration review and modify processes and contemplate amending legislation and regulations on U.S. government procurement, Members may consider the implications of such measures for the U.S. economy and their consistency with U.S. commitments under the GPA. For example, Members may engage with the Administration to assess the extent to which domestic producers are able to meet U.S. government demand and satisfy various essential national needs with inputs and products exclusively sourced from the United States. The Xxxxx Administration reviewed the benefits of the GPA, and according to one news report, considered withdrawal from the agreement. While some Members reportedly contend that the GPA is “imbalanced” and support U.S. withdrawal from it, others have called for modifying U.S. commitments under the agreement and modernizing rules regarding government procurement. Others argue that participation in the GPA not only maintains U.S. companies’ ability to compete for foreign government contracts, but it also gives the United States leverage to negotiate greater market access and better terms with WTO members in accession negotiations (e.g., China). U.S. government contractors often rely on global supply chains to support their U.S. government contracts, including networks of suppliers and manufacturing facilities in the territories of other GPA parties. Even when manufactured in the United St...
Accession Negotiations. Any WTO member may accede to the GPA on terms agreed between that member and all GPA parties. Since the GPA entered into force in 1996, its membership has grown from 23 to 48 parties (counting EU members separately). The GPA accession Xxxxxx X. Xxxxxxxxxxxxx, Analyst in International Trade and Finance IF11651 Disclaimer
Accession Negotiations. We begin the analysis by considering the stage 2 accession game, given the tariffs negotiated by countries 1 and 2 in stage 1. In light of the symmetry in endowments across the three countries, we can restrict attention to the case in which the initial trade agreement specifies ¯t 12 = ¯t 21 . We denote this tariff imposed on trade between member countries in goods 1 and 2 as tm. The MFN principle will ensure that if an agreement is reached, t13 = t23 = tm. Similarly, country 3 must apply the same tariffs to imports from countries 1 and 2 if it becomes a member, so the tariff negotiated between 3 and the members can be denoted ta = t31 = t32. The negotiations in this accession will involve offers of tariff reductions by the acceding country in return for receiving MFN access to the member markets. The payoff to a member country under an agreement can thus be expressed as W m(t m,t a) = W 1(t m,t m,t m,t m,t a,t a) , and the payoff to the acceding country is W a(t m,t a) = W 3(t m,t m,t m,t m,t a,t a) . Utilizing (1), (3), and (4) yields the following results:
Accession Negotiations. Any WTO member may accede to the GPA on terms agreed between that member the GPA parties that its procurement system complies with the GPA. Many members that have joined the WTO since 1995 committed to seek GPA membership as part of their terms for accession, including China and Russia—both of which continue to be engaged in GPA accession negotiations. Most recently, in May 2020, Brazil formally submitted its application to accede to the GPA. Security and General Exceptions. The GPA contains a national security exception, broadly in line with GATT 1994’s Article XXI. The exception states that a party is allowed to take “any action or not [disclose] any information that it considers necessary for the protection of its essential security interests relating to the procurement of arms, ammunition or war materials, or to procurement indispensable for national security or for national defense purposes.” In addition, the GPA also contains general exceptions modeled after GATT’s Article XX. These include—but are not limited to—safety, human, animal, or plant life or health, and philanthropic institutions. Issues for Congress The Xxxxx Administration reviewed the benefits of the GPA, and according to one news report, considered withdrawal from the agreement. While some Members reportedly contend that the GPA is “imbalanced” and support U.S. withdrawal from it, others have called for modifying U.S. commitments under the agreement and modernizing rules regarding government procurement. Others argue that participation in the GPA not only maintains U.S. companies’ ability to compete for foreign government contracts, but it also gives the United States leverage to negotiate greater market access and better terms with WTO members in accession negotiations (e.g., China). The GPA stipulates that any party may withdraw, effective 60 days after the WTO Director-General receives written notice. Any GPA party may, upon such notification, request an immediate meeting of the Committee on Government Procurement. Should the United States withdraw, foreign firms could potentially lose nondiscriminatory access to the U.S. procurement market; U.S. firms, likewise, could potentially be disqualified from bidding for government contracts in the markets of other GPA parties. U.S. government contractors often rely on global supply chains to support their U.S. government contracts, including networks of suppliers and manufacturing facilities in the territories of other GPA parties. Even wh...
