The treatment of Government Procurement in international trade agreements: the EU experience Taipei, 11 June 2008 Christian Levon European Commission DG Trade

I. Multilateral dimension: GP and the WTO Transparency GP in services GPA

II. EU bilateral Agreements Free Trade Agreements Accession to the EU and neighbourhood policy Other agreements

1. FTAs Existing FTAs: Mexico, Chile Ongoing negotiations: Mercosur, GCC, Korea, India, ASEAN, Andean Community, Central America, China, Ukraine

Content of EU FTAs in GP regulatory part: - Normally based on the GPA provisions -Objective is to ensure transparency and non discrimination Scope and coverage: -Entities and procurement covered -Exclusions such as defence -Possible transitional measures for DCs such as price preferences or offset

2. Enlargement and neighbourhood policy Different goals Different requirements Different names Asymetrical coverage

3. Other agreements Economic Partnership Agreements Partnership and Cooperation Agreement GP Bilateral agreements

Conclusion Taylor made agreements GP in all agreements Same goal: opening-up of the markets Request for rebalancing commitments in GPA Request for action against discriminating countries