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.
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