ABSTRACT
The Agreement on Government Procurement (GPA) under the World Trade Organization (WTO) has attracted 48 members and serves as a model for other trade agreements with procurement commitments. This chapter compares the role of the GPA and Regional Trade Agreements (RTAs) in opening public procurement markets. It starts with a brief overview of the treatment of government procurement in the development of the international trading system, from its exclusion for more than three decades to incorporation of procurement commitments in plurilateral agreements that provide access to procurement markets only for the signatories. In contrast to the US, the EU is pursuing an ambitious trade agenda that includes negotiating RTAs with GPA partners, especially Canada and Japan, which expanded significantly commitments they have taken under the GPA. The chapter concludes that, with constraints on broadening GPA membership and the proliferation of RTAs that open public procurement, RTAs likely offer the greater potential of leading the expansion of international procurement commitments.
