The WTO Government Procurement Agreement: The Most-Favoured Nation Principle, the GATS and Regionalism

Abstract:

This article is concerned with the nature and application of the most-favoured-nation (MFN) principle under the World Trade Organization’s (WTO’s) plurilateral Government Procurement Agreement (WTO GPA).

After establishing the context of the WTO GPA, the paper first assesses how the MFN principle operates among the parties of the WTO GPA, pursuant to Article IV. It then considers the relationship between the WTO GPA and the WTO GATS (General Agreement on Trade in Services) Article II MFN principle. The paper lastly examines the WTO GPA parties’ market-access commitments for the procurement of goods, services and construction services in regional trade agreements (RTAs), with reference to the scope of the MFN principle operating under Article IV of theWTO GPA.

The overall analysis identifies a correspondence between the WTO GPA and the GATS schedules and MFN requirements. The article concludes that this systemic correspondence has the potential to operate against the wider objectives of multilateralism under both the WTO and the WTO GPA itself.

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