The Agreement on Government Procurement, originally negotiated during the Tokyo Round, was renegotiated for the second time during the Uruguay Round. It is one of the WTO's so-called Plurilateral Agreements, meaning that its disciplines apply only to those WTO members that have signed it. With the reintroduction of agriculture and textiles and clothing into the GATT, the absence of general rules on procurement has become the major `hole' in GATT coverage.

In Discussion Paper No. 1112, Research Fellow Bernard Hoekman and Petros Mavroidis analyse the new Government Procurement Agreement that was negotiated between a subset of GATT members in the Uruguay Round, focusing in particular on the expansion of coverage to services and strengthening of enforcement mechanisms. The latter represents an innovation by allowing private parties to invoke the Agreement before national courts. The question of why membership of the Agreement remains limited is explored. Pursuit of tariffication is suggested as an avenue through which the Agreement might be expanded to cover all WTO members.

The WTO's Agreement on Government Procurement: Expanding Disciplines, Declining Membership?
Bernard M Hoekman and Petros C Mavroidis

Discussion Paper No. 1112, January 1995 (IT)