PRO-604 World Trade Organization Government Procurement Agreement

SCOPE: 

The purpose of this policy is to establish official procedure for handling contract awards which may be impacted by the international World Trade Organization (WTO) Government Procurement Agreement (GPA).

POLICY:  

Under the WTOGPA, member states are required to treat countries that are members of the agreement equally in every respect. This means that preferences in favor of the United States will be eliminated from contracts which have met three tests. 

1) The entity must be a member state to the WTOGPA. For a list of current members, see the WTO Parties website.

2) The procurement must be greater than or equal to the WTOGPA thresholds. See PRO-101, Procurement Definitions and Thresholds.

3) The procurement cannot be exempted (e.g., procurement which has an objective of promoting general environmental quality in the state, printing, certain programs promoting the development of distressed areas and businesses, etc.).

It also means that the countries themselves must be treated equally; no preference in favor of one of the countries over another can exist.

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PRO-604 World Trade Organization Government Procurement Agreement​​​​