North Macedonia set to become New Party to
Government Procurement Pact
Parties
to the WTO Government Procurement Agreement (GPA 2012) adopted today (7 June) a
decision on the terms of North Macedonia’s accession to the GPA. The decision, taken
at a meeting of the Committee on Government Procurement, paves the way for North
Macedonia to become the 49th WTO member to be covered by the Agreement.
North Macedonia will become a
GPA party 30 days after submitting its instrument of accession to the WTO’s Director-General.
Speaking at the meeting, Ms Razmena Cekic-Durovic, State Secretary at North Macedonia's Ministry
of Economy, said that the delegation's objective is to ratify the decision promptly
and submit the instrument of accession to the WTO.
“During the past five years,”
Ms Cekic-Durovic said, “we have shown that we honour this
commitment [to initiate negotiations for joining the Agreement], not only by words,
but also by action.”
She underlined that the Committee's
decision reflects North Macedonia's commitment to providing a level playing field
for foreign and domestic suppliers seeking to gain from procurement opportunities
made available by specific entities in North Macedonia.
Ms Cekic-Durovic
added: “It is of particular importance for countries to further promote cross-border
trade and open up public procurement markets, thus contributing to increased liberalisation,
integration and transparency of a bigger number of countries in the framework of
the GPA.”
This was the first meeting chaired
by Martin Zbinden (Switzerland) who was selected as chair
in May by the GPA parties. Mr Zbinden said: “North Macedonia's
accession sends a strong signal to the region and beyond about market opening, transparency
and good governance in government procurement, showing a pathway to other members
wishing to follow in North Macedonia's footsteps.”
The Dominican Republic and the
European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) participated in a GPA meeting
for the first time as observers.
The Dominican Republic's Ambassador
in Geneva, Dr José R. Sánchez-Fung, said that his country's observership
to the GPA Committee — the first for a Caribbean country — shows the government's
commitment to more transparency, which is indispensable for supporting economic
entities.
The Ambassador also drew attention
to a workshop co-organized with the WTO Secretariat in March in the Dominican Republic.
The workshop focused on the economic benefits of the GPA and on achieving effective
participation as an observer in the Committee, among other things, he said.
The EBRD's General Counsel, Michael
Strauss, underscored the Bank's longstanding cooperation with the WTO
Secretariat. He stressed that, since 2012, the EBRD has been actively supporting
economies in pursuing their accession to the GPA. He added: “The GPA 2012 has a
key role to play in the sustainable economic growth of WTO members, in a quick recovery
from the COVID-19 pandemic and in enhancing resilient global supply chains. We,
at the EBRD, are proud to support the activities of WTO members and the WTO Secretariat
aimed at creating fair, open and efficient procurement markets for the benefit of
all stakeholders.”
The parties and observers to
the GPA can be found here.
The next meeting of the Committee
on Government Procurement is expected to take place in the autumn.
Not all WTO members are Parties
to the Government Procurement Agreement. While it is open to all WTO members, this
plurilateral agreement is binding only for those members that have joined it. Forty-eight
WTO members (including the 27 member states of the European Union and the United
Kingdom) are currently bound by the Agreement.
Each applicant's terms of participation
are negotiated with GPA parties. These terms are set out in each party's schedule
(available from the e-GPA Gateway), which defines
its commitments with respect to:
·
the procuring entities whose procurement
processes will be open to foreign bidders
·
the goods, services and construction
services open to foreign competition
·
the threshold values above which procurement
activities will be open to foreign competition
·
exceptions to the coverage.
The GPA aims to open up government
procurement markets to foreign competition in a reciprocal manner and to the extent
agreed between GPA parties. It also aims to make government procurement more transparent
and to promote good governance. Reciprocal market opening assists GPA parties in
purchasing goods and services that offer the best value for their money. The Agreement
provides legal guarantees of non-discrimination for the goods, services and suppliers
of GPA parties in covered procurement activities, which are worth an estimated USD
1.7 trillion annually.
A protocol amending the GPA was
adopted in March 2012. The revised Agreement — known as “the GPA 2012” — streamlines
and modernizes the Agreement, taking account for example of the widespread use of
electronic procurement tools. It provides gains in market access in the range of
USD 80-100 billion annually. See the details here.
More information on the GPA can
be found here.
Many members took the floor to
condemn the war in Ukraine. The Russian delegate responded by saying that the WTO
is not the proper venue for a discussion of this nature.