I promised recently to have a look at WTO rules on government procurement. You can find details of the GPA agreement HERE. The recent furore about the new blue passport contract going to a Franco-Dutch company has highlighted the issue. Many Brexiteers blame the EU for the problem but we will face exactly the same issue when we join the WTO.
The Government Procurement Agreement doesn't cover all WTO members. Only about 47 are currently full members while another 31 are observers, of which 10 are in the process of joining. So, it will cover around a third of the WTO's 164 members but note it will include the USA and the EU as well as China, Canada, Japan and many other leading exporters. I expect we will also become signatories to the GPA.
What will it mean? The GPA provides for:
- guarantees of national treatment and non-discrimination for the suppliers of parties to the Agreement with respect to procurement of covered goods, services and construction services as set out in each party's schedules
- detailed procedural requirements regarding the procurement process designed to ensure that covered procurement under the Agreement is carried out in a transparent and competitive manner that does not discriminate against the goods, services or suppliers of other parties
In other words we will be in the exactly the same position afterwards as we are now, but perhaps even worse since (a) the EU, as a Regional Trading Agreement, has carved out some exceptions which we will be unable to replicate and (b) the WTO complaints procedure is far less effective than the ECJ.
Oh well, after a few years we can have a referendum on whether or not we want to remain in the WTO or become a great intergalactic trading nation and leave ordinary worldly goods behind us.
