Coverage of the WTO's Agreement on Government Procurement: Challenges of Integrating China and other Countries with a Large State Sector into the Global Trading System

The WTO's plurilateral Agreement on Government Procurement (GPA)is a significant WTO instrument to develop disciplines regulatinggovernment procurement. A recent major review of the GPA hasled to a revised text, likely to enter into force in 2007. Inthe meanwhile, China, a country with a large state sector, haspromised to initiate GPA accession negotiations by the end of2007. The article provides a critical assessment of the extent towhich the recent review of the coverage of the GPA has appreciatedthe characteristics of the government procurement regime ofthose countries with a large state sector. It is argued thatthe lack of a principled approach to entity coverage and theambiguities surrounding the scope of covered procurement arelikely to substantially hinder the negotiating process and preventthe optimal outcome of accession negotiations. It is suggestedthat a formula consisting of basic factors defining the coverageof government procurement disciplines, such as government controland competition, should be employed to address this issue.