Europe says China's latest bid to join procurement agreement "highly disappointing" Go back »

2012-12-06 | All chapters

China's latest proposal to join the Government Procurement Agreement (GPA), presented in Geneva on Wednesday, fails to include a wide range of procurement projects by state-controlled enterprises, the EU Chamber of Commerce in Beijing said in a statement.

Most public procurement in China is carried out at the sub-provincial level and through projects implemented by state-controlled enterprises and financed with public money.

But "just eight provincial level regions are covered by the GPA offer and none at the sub-provincial level", the Chamber said in a statement.

"As such, total coverage of the third revised GPA offer likely covers just 2 to 3 percent of China's total public procurement marketplace", said the group, a consortium of 1,700 European corporate members.

It called the offer "still highly disappointing in terms of scope and coverage".

It was China's fourth offer to join the GPA - which comes under the World Trade Organisation - which will open $100 billion of government contracts to foreign competition every year. So far only 42 of the WTO's 157 member countries have joined the GPA, with 10 observer nations negotiating entry, and 14 observers not seeking accession to the accord.

Access to China's vast public procurement market, which ranges from building highways to running data networks, has been a sticking point with Beijing's trade partners since China joined the WTO 11 years ago.

China has resisted calls to include local governments, which account for 93 percent of procurement spending, saying it was up to those local governments to decide.

European software companies in particular have complained of being sidelined in bids for government contracts in China.

Bringing China on board would be a huge boost to the agreement, but Beijing has so far disappointed existing members with the amount of its spending it is willing to open up.

By Terril Yue Jones

Source: Reuters