The decision today completes a process of negotiations that began with Chinese Taipei's application for accession to the Agreement in March 1995, even before it became a Member of the WTO.

Director-General Pascal Lamy welcomed the decision as “good for Chinese Taipei and good for the agreement”. “This further advances the important principles of transparency, openness, efficiency and value-for-money in government procurement,” he said.

The Chairman of the Committee on Government Procurement, Mr. Nicholas Niggli of Switzerland, congratulated Chinese Taipei and said: “accession to the GPA is a historic and pathbreaking step of which the delegation of Chinese Taipei should be very proud. Of course, Chinese Taipei's accession is also a historic milestone for the Committee and the Agreement on Government Procurement. I would like to thank Chinese Taipei itself, in addition to all GPA Parties and observers, for the excellent co-operation that they have extended to me in my efforts to facilitate this very significant achievement.”

Government procurement accounts for in the range of 15-20 % of gross domestic product (GDP), on average, in developed countries. Only a part of this is currently covered by the Agreement on Government Procurement.

The aim of the Agreement is to open up as much of government procurement as possible to international competition. It is designed to make laws, regulations, procedures and practices regarding government procurement that is covered by the Agreement more transparent and to ensure they do not protect domestic products or suppliers, or discriminate against foreign products or suppliers.

Currently, the Agreement covers forty WTO Members, namely: Canada; the European Communities, including its 27 member States; Hong Kong, China; Iceland; Israel; Japan; Korea; Liechtenstein; the Kingdom of the Netherlands with respect to Aruba; Norway; Singapore; Switzerland; and the United States.

Other WTO Members that are in the process of negotiating their accession to the Agreement on Government Procurement are Albania, China, Georgia, Jordan, the Kyrgyz Republic, Moldova, Oman and Panama. A further six WTO Members, namely Armenia, Croatia, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Mongolia, Saudi Arabia and the Ukraine, have provisions regarding accession to the Agreement in their respective Protocols of Accession to the WTO.