Policy Brief

13/07/2016

Public procurement has long been an offensive interest in EU Trade Policy and is given a strong profile in the Commission’s Trade for All strategy which states that ‘public procurement spending … accounts for 15% to 20% of GDP worldwide. The DG Trade website states that the objectives of negotiations in EU trade agreements are:

  • to set modern and international standard procurement principles which seek to ensure that public money is spent in a transparent, efficient and non-discriminatory way.
  • provide a level playing field for EU suppliers when tendering abroad.

The relationship between the EU and the US in the area of procurement goes back to the post-GATT years when the US, having previously not requested the support for the setting of procurement rules from the EU, started to work more closely with them to shape procurement in the WTO’s General Procurement Agreement (GPA). The US and the EU thus jointly developed rules in OECD that were applied in the GPA and in free trade agreements of the parties with third countries. In the 1980s the EU created the single market agreement and worked with the USA in OECD leading up to the 1994 Uruguay round which created the 1994 GPA. Revised in 2014 mainly to update the agreement to include electronic procurement tools, the basis of the agreement is to ensure ‘guarantees of national treatment and non-discrimination for the suppliers of parties to the Agreement with respect to procurement of covered goods, services and construction services as set out in each party’s schedules. The GPA negotiations concluded with the US only offering partial access to sub-federal level procurement in 37 States and some bilateral agreements with States and cities. The EU responded by withholding binding commitments on coverage of some EU procurement from suppliers in the US.

Read the policy brief

Network
Fondation Jean-Jaurès
Global Progressive Forum
Karl Renner Institut
Policy Network
Solidar
Find all related publications
Publications
22/11/2023

The macro-economic impact of the cost crisis

Lessons for Europe
18/10/2023

Beyond humanitarian aid: the EU’s approach to alleviating food crisis in the Sahel at a time of global insecurity

'12 years of crises in the Sahel' series
18/09/2023

Making trade work for prosperity, people and planet

FEPS Primers series - Arancha González and Yanis Bourgeois
01/09/2023

Bidding farewell to workfare?

Recovery Watch series
Find all related Progressive Post
Progressive Post
09/11/2023

Pedalling towards progress

Almeirim's vision for sustainable mobility and community well-being
21/09/2023

The EU economic governance reform: technical and political points

21/09/2023

Daring more democracy!

How democratisation can fix the EU's economic governance
Find all related events
Events
Upcoming
25/01/2024
Expert meeting (online)

Boosting Economic Democracy

The theory behind the practice
Past
07/12/2023
European Parliament (Hybrid)

A blueprint for a Social and Green Deal

Follow-up Event of the Beyond Growth Conference
06/12/2023
FEPS HQ, Brussels (Expert meeting)

Ensuring a Just Transition in times of industrial transformation

Find all related news
News
29/11/2023

Economic Democracy

FEPS has launched an initiative on Economic Democracy
09/10/2023

Tax the rich

A European Citizens' Initiative
14/09/2023

Call for tender – Researcher on inflation

This call for tender closed on 03/10/23
11/07/2023

A new social contract for the well-being of people and the planet

Call to action on Just Transition
Find all related in the media
In the media

Total honesty and far-right lies

by IPS Journal 04/12/2023
Dive into the insightful analysis published in IPS Journal by Tom Theuns, Assist. Prof at Leiden University, and László Andor, FEPS Secretary General, examining the Dutch election results and the conclusions that need to be drawn for a successful EU Integration

“Trade doesn’t work in isolation from good domestic policies” Interview to Arancha González

by Borderlex 19/09/2023
Interview to Arancha González, former Spanish foreign minister, who released together with FEPS the new book entitled 'The Trade Handbook: Making Trade Work for Prosperity, People and Planet'

A szociális unió imperatívusza

by Új Egyenlőség 09/09/2023
'The imperative of Social Union'. Article about FEPS book 'Europe’s Social Integration: Welfare Models and Economic Transformations' by László Andor.

Após 66 anos de adiamentos, a barragem do Pisão entrou em contra-relógio

by Pùblico 19/08/2023
'After 66 years of postponements, the Pisão dam has entered a race against time' Pùblico's article mentions FEPS Policy Study 'Governing the RRF'