RESTRICTEDWORLD TRADE
ORGANIZATIONGPA/M/12
31 January 2000
(00-0369)
Committee on Government Procurement
MINUTES OF THE MEETING HELD ON 5 OCTOBER 1999
Chairman:  Mr Dick Mak (Hong Kong, China)
1. The following agenda was adopted:
A.A PPLICATIONS FOR OBSERVER STATUS
B. MODIFICATIONS TO THE APPENDICES TO THE AGREEMENT
(i) Notifications
(ii) Loose-leaf system
C. LEAST DEVELOPED COUNTRIES
D. ACCESSIONS :
(i) Kyrgyz Republic
(ii) Latvia
(iii) Iceland
(iv) Chinese Taipei
(v) Panama
(vi) Accession procedures
E. NEWLY ACCEDED WTO M EMBERS
(i) Bulgaria
(ii) Mongolia
(iii) Slovenia
F. REVIEW OF NATIONAL IMPLEMENTING LEGISLATION
G. NEGOTIATIONS UNDER ARTICLE XXIV:7
H. 1999 R EPORT TO THE GENERAL COUNCIL
I. DATE OF THE NEXT MEETINGGPA/M/12
Page 2
A. APPLICATIONS FOR OBSERVER STATUS
2. The Committee agreed to grant observer status to the Governments of the Kyrgyz Republic ,
Croatia and Georgia , pursuant to the decision it had taken on this matter (GPA/1, Annex 1) and in
response to the requests received from thes e countries (GPA/W/83, 84 and 89, respectively).
B. MODIFICATIONS TO THE APPENDICES TO THE AGREEMENT
(i) Notifications
3. The Chairman said that, since the Committee's February 1999 meeting, Japan had notified
proposed modifications to its Appendix I (GPA/W/ 88, 91, 94 and 98).  The modifications by Japan in
GPA/W/88 had entered into force on 8 August 1999 (WT/Let/308).  Corrections to this notification,
subsequently made by Japan, had been circulated in document GPA/W/93.1  Regarding the
notification by Japan in document GPA/W/91, the Ch airman said that the delegations of the United
States, the European Community and Canada had communicated their objection to the proposed
modifications taking effect upon the expiration of the thirty-day period provided in Article XXIV:6
(GPA/W/95, 96 and 97, respectively).
4. The representative of Japan said the proposed modifications to Annex 3 of Appendix I
followed the restructuring of the Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Co. (NTT), with effect from
1 July 1999, which had resulted in the establishment of three companies, namely, the Nippon
Telegraph and Telephone East Corporation, the Nippon Telegraph and Telephone West Corporation
and the NTT Communications Corporation.  The Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation itself
had become a holding company.  The Nippon Telegraph and Telephone East Corporation and the
Nippon Telegraph and Telephone West Corporation would be added to the list of entities in Annex 3
of Appendix I of the Agreement.  The NTT Communications Corporation had been established as a
private company in accordance with the procedures st ipulated in the Japanese commercial law.  The
NTT Law did not apply to this Corporation, which meant that the Government of Japan had no longer
control or influence over it.  Japan therefore considered that the NTT Communications Corporation
would not need to be included in Annex 3 of Appendi x 1 of the GPA.  Providing some factual data on
the procurement of the NTT Communications Corporation, he said that, in 1997 the total amount of
its procurement above threshold was only 0.54 per cent of the whole of the former NTT procurement
and 0.02 per cent of the procurement by all the entities listed in Appendix I of Japan, which meant
that there was very little, if any, consequence of the change on the mutually agreed coverage provided
under the Agreement pursuant to the rectification.  Open tendering procedures had applied to all the
procurements by the NTT Communications Corporati on in that year.  The Government of Japan had
found that the NTT Communications Corporation had voluntarily continued to conduct itsprocurements in a transparent and non-discriminatory manner.
5. The representative of the United States said that, while the proposed modifications continued
to include two new subdivisions of the NTT Corporation under the coverage of the Agreement, the
NTT Communications Corporation was excluded.  Hi s delegation would be interested in holding
consultations with the delegation of Japan under Article XXIV:6 to determine whether governmentcontrol or influence over the NTT Communications Corporation had effectively been eliminated.  His
delegation would also provide questions to Japan regarding the implications of this modification.
2
The representative of the European Community said  that his delegation had concerns regarding the
proposed modifications and hoped to receive further information from Japan on the new entities and
their future procurement activities.  His delegation would also submit questions to the delegation of
                                                     
1 Modifications by Japan in GPA/W/94, 98 and 93 subsequently entered into force on 30 October 1999
(WT/Let/325), 3 November 1999 (WT/Let/326) and 29 October 1999 (WT/Let/324), respectively.
2 Subsequently circulated in document GPA/W/100.GPA/M/12
Page 3
Japan.3  The representative of Canada said that her delegation's communication circulated in
GPA/W/97 contained a set of questions to Japan.  Her delegation reserved the right to pursue further
questions or consultations in future.  The representative of Hong Kong, China, joined by the
representative of Switzerland, said that his delegation objected to the proposed modifications taking
effect.  They would need to seek more information from the delegation of Japan to ascertain whetherthe modifications proposed were indeed minor in nature.  For the sake of transparency, Parties
concerned should keep the Committee informed of progress in their consultations.
6. The Committee took note of the statements made and agreed
 to revert to this matter at its next
meeting, subject to a mutually satisfactory solution of the issue between Japan and the Parties
concerned before then.
(ii) Loose-leaf system of Appendices
7. The Chairman said that the revised version of the loose-leaf system had been circulated to
Parties for comments on 8 July 1999 in document GPA/W/35/Rev.1.  A comment period of 60 days
had been given to delegations in accordance with the procedures agreed to by the Committee.  Except
for a few comments by Japan of a purely editorial nature, no comments had been received by the
Secretariat.  Accordingly, the Loose-leaf System of Appendices would be certified and circulated toall Parties as well as placed, in its certified form, on the WTO website.  In accordance with the
procedures agreed to by the Committee at its meeting of 24 February 1997, Parties proposing to make
future rectifications and modifications to their Appe ndices should notify them to the Committee in the
form of relevant replacement or additional pages to be inserted in the loose-leaf system, identifying
the proposed changes.  As before, these proposed rectifications and modifications would be circulatedto Members in the GPA/W/- series.  Once they had become effective and had been certified, the new
or amended pages would be circulated with a cover note indicating where the insertions and/or
deletions were to be made in the Loose-leaf System of Appendices.
C.
LEAST DEVELOPED COUNTRIES
8. The Chairman said that, at the previous mee ting, the delegation of the European Community
had suggested the adoption of a decision on the extension of the benefits of the Agreement to all the
least developed WTO Members (GPA/M/11, paragraph 30).  The representative of the European
Community, supported by the representative of Norway , said that his delegation had made that
suggestion because it was important that least developed countries had improved access to open
procurement markets based on the provision of Article V:12.  The representative of the United States
said that his country already extended the benefits under the existing coverage of the Agreement toleast developed countries.  The representative of Canada said that, while her country extended the
benefits of the GPA to least developed countries, any action in this respect should continue to be
taken through initiatives by individual Parties.  On this latter point, the representative of the European
Community said that, the present provisions of Article V:12 which allowed each individual Party to
decide whether to extend its benefits to least deve loped countries should not be put into question.
However, if a large majority of Parties were prepared to apply these provisions on their own initiative,a declaration in this respect, notwithstanding its non-binding effect, would give a positive political
signal that Parties were willing to share the benefits of the Agreement with least developed countries.
The representative of Switzerland said that it might be interesting to obtain statistics on the number of
procurement contracts that had been awarded by Parties to suppliers from the least developedcountries under the relevant provisions of the Agreement.
                                                     
3 Subsequently circulated in document GPA/W/99.GPA/M/12
Page 4
9. The Chairman suggested that, as a way of moving forward on this matter, the Secretariat
might be requested to draw up a draft declaration on the treatment of least developed countries which
would be circulated to Parties for their considerat ion.  The declaration would be considered adopted if
no objections were received by the Secretariat within  two weeks.  It would subsequently be forwarded
to the Seattle Ministerial Conference as a contribution from the Committee.
10. The representative of Switzerland said that his delegation would need to hold consultations on
this matter at the internal level since, under the Sw iss Federal Law,  the benefits of the GPA could be
extended only on the basis of reciprocity.
11. The Chairman said the draft declaration would attempt to take into account the current
practices in order to accommodate different situations existing in Parties.
12. The Committee agreed to proceed as suggested by the Chairman.4
D. ACCESSIONS
(i) Kyrgyz Republic
13. The Chairman said that an application for acces sion to the Agreement, together with a draft
offer, had been received from the Kyrgyz Republic on 11 May 1999 (GPA/SPEC/4).
(ii) Latvia
14. The Chairman said that an application for acces sion to the Agreement, together with a draft
offer, had been received from Latvia on 16 June  1999 (GPA/SPEC/5).  Furthermore, Latvia had
circulated information on its national legislation and had provided responses to the checklist of issues
in GPA/1/Add.1 (GPA/28).
(iii) Iceland
15. The Chairman said that an application for acces sion to the Agreement together with a draft
offer, had been received from the delegation of Iceland on 22 June 1998 (GPA/W/73).
16. The representative of Iceland said that his delegation had been engaged in bilateral
consultations with the delegations of Canada, Switzerland and the United States on the basis of its
initial draft offer.  During the first half of 1999 Iceland had received further requests for informationregarding its offer.  The responses of his delegation and the relevant legislation would be submitted in
the near future.
5
17. The Chairman said that delegations should comp lete their bilateral consultations with Iceland
as soon as possible in order to enable the consideration of a decision on Iceland's terms of accession at
the Committee's next meeting.
                                                     
4 A note by the Secretariat containing a draft decl aration on the treatment of least developed countries
was circulated on 8 October 1999 with a comment period until 19 October 1999.  Some delegations indicated
that they needed more ti me to consider the draft.
5 Circulated subsequently in document GPA/SPEC/6.GPA/M/12
Page 5
(iv) Chinese Taipei
18. The representative of Chinese Taipei said that his delegation had held discussions with the
delegations of Canada and Korea regarding some pending issues.
(v) Panama
19. The representative of Panama said that his delegation had responded to the outstanding
questions from the delegations of Switzerland and the United States.  The representative of Canada
said that her delegation also had a few outstanding questions.
(vi) Accession procedures
20. Recalling the discussion on streamlining the accession procedures, the Chairman said that, at
the February meeting, the Committee had heard a statement by the delegation of the European
Community expressing its views on the general principles of preparation of offers by accedingcountries and had invited the Community to come forward with a note.  Furthermore, as agreed at that
meeting, the Secretariat had drawn up, for the consideration of the Committee, a draft Checklist of
Issues that acceding countries might be invited to use in providing information on the main features of
their national legislation and procurement regimes (Job No. 5761, dated 5 October 1999).
21. After a brief discussion, the Chairman suggested that the Secretariat be asked to prepare a
note on the establishment of an indicative time-frame for accession negotiations together with a
procedure for regular reporting to each Committee meeting on progress in bilateral consultations.  At
the next meeting, the Committee could revert to the matter of developing a normative framework for
accessions on the basis of this note, the draft Checklist of Issues prepared by the Secretariat and the
note that the European Community had promised to circulate.
22. The Committee so agreed.
E. N EWLY ACCEDED WTO M EMBERS
(i) Bulgaria
23. The representative of Bulgaria said that the new government procurement law, fully in line
with the requirements of the GPA, had been approved by the Parliament in June 1999.  Moreover, his
authorities were in the process of preparing Bulgar ia's application for accession to the Agreement in
accordance with the commitments undertaken in the Protocol of Accession of Bulgaria to the WTO
(WT/ACC/BGR/5, paragraph 80).
(ii) Mongolia
24. The Chairman said that in its application for observer status, Mongolia had referred to the
need for technical cooperation with regard to its accession to the Agreement (GPA/W/80).  As agreed
at the last meeting, the Secretariat had been in contact with the delegation of Mongolia in order to
explore further the requirements of Mongolia in this respect.
25. Reporting on these consultations, the representative of the Secretariat said that Mongolia was
in the process of developing basic legislation with the technical assistance received from the Asian
Development Bank in 1999.  Building on this,  Mongolia would need assistance geared specifically tothe work on ensuring the consistency of its laws with the Agreement.  Other areas of technical
assistance might relate to future negotiations of the terms of its accession, including the drawing up of
schedules and the preparation of responses to requests for information from Parties.  Another keyGPA/M/12
Page 6
component of technical cooperation might be providing training on the administrative and
institutional aspects of the Agreement to ensure Mongolia's full participation in the Committee's work.
The consultations on the modalities of this technical assistance programme would be pursued with
Mongolia and interested Parties.
26. The representative of Switzerland said that the World Bank and Regional Development Banks
undertook projects in a number of countries for the development of basic government procurement
legislation.  In the context of the accession process, countries might still need to do work to ensure the
necessary alignment of their existing legislation to the Agreement.  The Committee might consider
developing a framework programme for technical cooperation which would aim at facilitating the
work of acceding countries in this respect.
27. At the suggestion of the Chairman, the Committee agreed  that the issue of technical
cooperation to acceding countries be taken up at the next meeting.
(iii) Slovenia
28. The Chairman said that the Working Party on the Accession of Slovenia to GATT had taken
note of a commitment by the representative of Slovenia that his Government would accede to the
Agreement on Government Procurement as soon as national legislation dealing with the subject had
been enacted, but not later than three years after the date of accession (L/7492, dated 1 July 1994).Slovenia had become a WTO Member on 30 July 1995.  The Procurement Law and relevant
regulations had been enacted in 1997.  Slovenia had yet to submit an application for accession.
29. After a brief discussion, the Committee agreed that the Chair should write a letter to the
delegation of Slovenia seeking information on the steps taken in Slovenia regarding its accession to
the Agreement.
F. REVIEW OF NATIONAL IMPLEMENTING LEGISLATION
30. In accordance with the agreed procedures and the schedule for the review of national
implementing legislation, the Committee reviewed the legislation of Canada (GPA/13) on the basis of
the written questions put by Hong Kong, China;  the European Community;  and Switzerland and the
replies by Canada which had been circulated prior to the meeting (Job No. 5728).  Parties were invitedto submit any further questions that they wished to put to Canada by 15 November 1999.
6  T h e
delegation of Canada would provide written responses to these questions by 15 February 2000.
31. After reverting briefly to the ongoing review of the national legislation of the European
Community, Korea, Switzerland and the United St ates, the Chairman suggested that the Committee
consider that the review of legislation of the European Community and Switzerland had been
completed, it being understood that the Committee might revert to any matter relating to the
legislation of these two Parties at any time.  The full record of the review of the legislation of theEuropean Community and Switzerland would be circulated in documents GPA/32 and GPA/33,
respectively.
32. The Committee also agreed that the Committee should take up, at its next meeting, any
outstanding points with respect to the legislation of Korea and the United States.  At that meeting, it
would also initiate the review of the national  implementing legislation of Hong Kong, China
(GPA/27) and Norway (GPA/10).  In accordance with the agreed procedures for the review, Parties
would be invited to submit their written questions to these delegations by 23 December 1999 and
                                                     
6 No questions had been submitted as of 27 January 2000.GPA/M/12
Page 7
copies would be made available to the Secretariat which would circulate them to other Parties.7
Hong Kong, China and Norway would provid e written responses to these questions by
15 February 2000.
G. NEGOTIATIONS UNDER ARTICLE XXIV :7
33. Reporting on the informal consultations held in May, June, September and October 1999, the
Chairman said that these consultations had been held on the basis of an informal Checklist of Issues
(the latest revision of which was circulated as Job No. 5189) and an informal note reflecting the drafttexts of proposed modifications to the Articles of the Agreement side-by-side with the text of the
Agreement (circulated as Job No. 5713).  At the informal consultations on 4 October 1999, Parties
had considered the timetable for the completion of the negotiations and the overall work programme
that should be envisaged within that time-frame.  There was agreement that good progress had been
made on improving the text of the Agreement, that the momentum of the work would need to bemaintained and that all three elements would need to be covered.  Parties would revert to this matter at
the next meeting in early 2000.  At that time, Parties would also focus on:  framework and similar
types of contracts, statistical reporting and the Article-by-Article review of the Agreement.  In
addition, Parties would continue monitoring progress in the elimination of discriminatory measures.
H. 1999 REPORT TO THE GENERAL COUNCIL
34. The Committee adopted its Annual Report for 1999 to the General Council on the basis of a
draft prepared by the Secretariat which was amended in the light of the discussion at the meeting.  It
was subsequently circulated as document GPA/30.
I. DATE OF THE NEXT MEETING
35. The Committee agreed to hold its next meeting on 8 March 2000.
__________
                                                     
7 No questions had been submitted as of 27 January 2000.  The questions from the European
Community and Hong Kong, China put to Canada were circulated on 6 July 1999 as Job No. 3687 and on
16 June 1999 as Job No. 3423, respectively.