China said it would take into account all the requests made by the parties to the GPA for an improvement of its previous offer, submitted in November 2011, which had been considered insufficient.

The Committee invited Malaysia to become an observer to the GPA and elected Bruce Christie, of Canada, to be the next chairman of the Committee to replace Nicholas Niggli, of Switzerland, who had held the post for the past five years.

The Government Procurement Agreement is a plurilateral agreement with 42 members (including the EU and its 27 states). Of the 23 observers, nine are negotiating to become full parties, and 14 others have not yet started negotiations.