Withdrawing the United States from the WTO Government Procurement Agreement (GPA): Assessing Potential Damage to the U.S. and Its Contracting Community

Authors

Christopher R. Yukins, George Washington University Law SchoolFollow

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2020

Status

Accepted

Abstract

The Trump administration is mulling an executive order that would trigger U.S. withdrawal from the WTO Agreement on Government Procurement (GPA), according to reports from Bloomberg and POLITICO. Withdrawal from the GPA would deprive U.S. suppliers of a key point of access to public procurement markets internationally, under a world-wide agreement which has set global standards and opened over a trillion dollars annually in business opportunities. See, e.g., Anderson et al., “Assessing the Value of Future Accessions to the WTO Agreement on Government Procurement (GPA): Some New Data Sources, Provisional Estimates, and An Evaluative Framework for Individual WTO Members Considering Accession,” 2012 Pub. Proc. Law Rev. 113. The United States could forfeit access to important public procurement markets in Canada and many other countries, and the United States could lose its leadership role (which dates back to World War II) in shaping global standards in public procurement, even as more countries are joining the GPA.

GW Paper Series

No. 2020-08

SSRN Link

https://ssrn.com/abstract=3540413

Comments

co-author Robert D. Anderson, World Trade Organization

Recommended Citation

62 Gov. Contractor para. 35 (Thomson Reuters, Feb. 12, 2020)