Oct 12 (Reuters) - Members of the World Trade Organization have launched a final push for a revised government procurement agreement (GPA) that regulates trade in contracts by public authorities worth hundreds of billions of dollars a year.
The chairman of the WTO's Government Procurement Committee, Swiss diplomat Nicholas Niggli, hopes to wrap up the negotiations by the end of this year. The committee meets on Thursday and Friday this week.
WHAT IS THE GPA?
* The GPA is a voluntary agreement among some of the WTO's 153 members.
* It provides an international legal framework to liberalise and regulate public procurement markets to ensure that businesses do not suffer discrimination compared with domestic suppliers when bidding for contracts in other countries that are parties to the agreement.
* It covers areas such as technical specifications and tendering procedures, thresholds for which procurement contracts become eligible for international competition, and exceptions.
WHAT ARE THE NEGOTIATIONS ABOUT?
* The original GPA was agreed in 1994 at the end of the Uruguay Round of trade liberalisation of the WTO's predecessor, the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT).
* GPA members agreed on a revised text in 2006, updating the agreement to reflect changes in procurement practice since 1994, such as electronic procurement tenders, and spelling out special transitional measures for developing countries that join up.
* That updated agreement will come into force when members reach agreement on expanding the coverage of the GPA -- for instance bringing in contracts by local or regional governments as well as national authorities. This is the focus of negotiations over the next few months.
* The main issue in these coverage talks is the extent to which the United States and Canada respond to calls by the European Union to open up procurement at the sub-federal level.
* The negotiations are separate to the Doha round to free up world trade in general, which involve all 153 WTO members.
WHO ARE THE MEMBERS AND WHO WILL JOIN?
* The GPA now has 41 members: Canada, the European Union and its 27 members states, Hong Kong, Iceland, Israel, Japan, Liechtenstein, the Netherlands territory of Aruba, Norway, Singapore, South Korea, Switzerland, Taiwan and the United States. Taiwan, the most recent member, joined in July 2009.
* Albania, Armenia, China, Georgia, Jordan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Oman and Panama have applied to join. The accessions of Armenia, Jordan and China are the most advanced.
* Armenia is expected to complete accession negotiations this year, and Jordan could come in next year.
* China submitted an offer to join in 2007, which was widely seen by GPA members as inadequate. A revised offer in July this year expanded coverage and lowered thresholds. It did not meet all the demands of existing members but got a positive response suggesting negotiations could conclude soon.
* Recent WTO members Croatia, Macedonia, Mongolia, Saudi Arabia and Ukraine pledged to join the GPA as part of their accession agreement to the WTO. There is now a clear trend for new WTO members to promise to join the GPA too.
* India became an observer of the agreement in February this year -- usually a preliminary step to applying for membership. There are no signs that India is about to apply. But if China joins that could encourage other emerging economies to as well for fear of being shut out of markets to which China has access. (For revised GPA text go to http://link.reuters.com/vyp97p ) (For story on GPA negotiations click on ) (Source: WTO, Reuters) (Compiled by Jonathan Lynn; Editing by Stephanie Nebehay)