RESTRICTEDWORLD TRADE
ORGANIZATIONGPA/W/109/Rev.2
3 January 2001
(01-0009)
Committee on Government Procurement
INDICATIVE TIME-FRAME FOR ACCESSION NEGOTIATIONS
AND REPORTING ON THE PROGRESS OF WORK
Note by the Secretariat
Revision
1. In the context of its discussion regarding the improvement of the procedures for accession
under Article XXIV:2, the Committee has addressed 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 on the basis of an earlier version of this note.  The present revisiontakes into account the comments made by Parties at the March and September 2000 meetings.
2. Certain basic procedures for accession negotiations have already been adopted by the
Committee in its Decision of February 1996 on the Procedures for Accession under Article XXIV:2 of
the Agreement (GPA/1, Annex 2).  This Decision reads as follows:
"1. In accordance with paragraph 2 of Article XXIV of the Agreement on
Government Procurement (1994), any government which is a Member of the WTO
may accede to this Agreement on terms to be agreed between that government and
the Parties.
"2. To this effect, a government interested in accession shall communicate its
interest to the Director-General of the WTO and, through him, to the Committee on
Government Procurement and shall submit relevant information including an offer by
way of appropriate Appendices containing lists of entities and services which wouldbe covered by the Agreement, as well as lists of relevant publications, having regard
to the provisions of the Agreement, in particular Article I and, where appropriate,
Article V.
"3. The government interested in accession shall hold consultations with the
Parties to the Agreement on the terms for its accession to the Agreement.
"4. With a view to facilitating accession, the Committee on Government
Procurement shall establish a working party if the applicant government, or any Party
to the Agreement, so requests.  The working party should examine:  (i) the coverage
offer made by the applicant government;  and (ii) relevant information pertaining to
export opportunities in the markets of the Parties, taking into account the existing andpotential export capabilities of the applicant government and export opportunities for
the Parties in the market of the applicant government.
"5. Upon a decision by the Committee on Government Procurement agreeing to
the terms of accession including the lists of entities and services as well as of
relevant publications of the applicant government, the applicant government shalldeposit with the Director-General of the WTO an instrument of accession whichGPA/W/109/Rev.2
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states the terms so agreed.  The applicant government's lists of entities, services and
publications in their authentic WTO language(s) shall be appended to the
Agreement."
3. Attached is a suggested indicative timetable for accession negotiations.  It will be noted that
the table does not specifically include the option of establishing a working party, as provided forunder paragraph 4 of the above Decision.  The reason is that, in practice, this option has not been
availed of so far.  However, should an applican t government or any Party to the Agreement request
the establishment of such a working party, consequential modifications would need to be made to the
suggested indicative timetable.
4. The suggested indicative timetable seeks to take into account the fact that accession
negotiations have two main aspects and involve basically two mechanisms.  The first aspect is the
negotiation of an agreed coverage to be reflected in Appendices containing lists of entities andservices as well as lists of relevant publications.  The second is ensuring the consistency of the
applicable national legislation with the provisions of the Agreement.  The two main mechanisms used
for these purposes are bilateral consultations between an acceding country and interested Parties and
plurilateral consultations.  The negotiations on commitments to be included in the Appendices are
more focused on bilateral consultations whereas the other aspect of the negotiations is largelyconducted through the plurilateral mechanism.  These two aspects and mechanisms overlap to some
extent and should proceed in parallel.  As the Committee has already indicated, it is important that
there should be a regular plurilateral review of the bilateral parts of the accession process and, of
course, the results of both aspects of the negotiations must come together at the plurilateral level in
the preparation and adoption of a decision setting out the terms of accession.
5. It will be noted that although paragraph 2 of the Committee Decision of February 1996 would
not seem to necessarily require acceding countries to submit their initial offer together with their
application for accession,  applicant countries have, on the whole, done so.  While the suggested
procedures are sufficiently flexible to allow for the possibility of an initial round of plurilateral and
bilateral discussions before the submission of the initial offer, they should also allow an applicantcountry to submit its initial offer at the same time as its application if it is in a position to do so.  The
submission of initial offers might be envisaged at any time during the first six months after the
application but should not be any later.
6. With regard to the largely plurilateral process of provision by the applicant country of
information on its procurement regime, the Committee has already adopted a Checklist of Issues to
act as a guide to applicant countries in submitting su ch information (GPA/35).  It is suggested in the
attached indicative timetable that, following the circulation of the responses to the Checklist and otherrelevant data, provision might be made for Parties to seek further clarification of the applicable
legislation and procedures through informal plurilateral consultations including a written question and
answer procedure.  The questions put and answers provided would be circulated to all Parties.  If
necessary, provision could also be made for follow-up questions and answers and further informal
consultations at a later stage in the process.  It is suggested that the timetable for the review of a
procurement regime runs from the date of application for accession and, for the negotiation of
Appendices, from the date of the submission of the applicant's initial offer.  Every effort would be
made to align bilateral/plurilateral consultations that are envisaged in each of the timetables and the
timetables would be applied with the necessary flexibility to facilitate this.
7. The suggested indicative timetable for general accession process envisages that the process,
from the date of the application to the adoption of the decision containing the terms of accession,
should normally be completed within 18 months.  It would, of course, have to be understood that a
certain degree of flexibility would be necessary to take account of such factors as the state of
preparation of the acceding country, the complexity of its procurement regime and government
structure and the timing of Committee meetings.  On the other hand, not all the stages envisaged mayGPA/W/109/Rev.2
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be necessary in some accession negotiations and some of the steps in the timetable, for instance
exchange of follow-up written questions and replies, submission of a revised offer or further
plurilateral consultations, could be omitted which would have the effect of reducing the overall
time-frame by approximately six months.
8. In its request for the preparation of this note, the Secretariat was asked to consider the
question of a procedure for regular reporting to each Committee meeting on progress in the bilateral
consultations.  Hitherto, the Committee's overview of accession negotiations has mainly consisted of
the acceding country or interested Parties reporting orally to the Committee at its meetings on an
ad hoc basis.  To provide a more systematic basis for the Committee's overview of the accession
process and to improve transparency, consideration might be given to providing to the Committee a
brief note outlining the state of play in the accession process of each applicant.  This might be done,
for example, through the annotated provisional agenda, which is circulated by the Secretariat prior toeach Committee meeting.  The information contained therein could be updated at the meeting, where
necessary, by the Chair, the applicant country and parties.  Based on this, the Committee might take
stock of the progress of each accession process and, where appropriate, the Chair might seek to draw
conclusions about moving to the next stage of the indicative timetable.
9. The work involved in the provision of relevant information on national procurement regimes,
any amendments to such regimes required and the preparation of offers by an acceding developing
country may require technical cooperation, for example in the form of advice and assistance from
Parties and the Secretariat, country visits and training.  At the outset of the accession process, the
Secretariat might enter into contact with the applicant country with a view to drawing up a technical
cooperation programme for that country, taking into account its specific needs and circumstances.Parties should be ready to make resources available bilaterally and/or through the Secretariat for this
purpose.GPA/W/109/Rev.2
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ATTACHMENT
SUGGESTED INDICATIVE TIMETABLE FOR THE ACCESSION PROCESS
The timetable that follows is intended to be purely indicative in nature and sets out what is
considered to be the normal time-frame for the accession process.  Not all the stages envisaged may
be necessary in some accession negotiations and that it may be possible to complete the process more
rapidly, while in some other cases additional time may be required due to special factors.
The suggested timetable for the accession proce ss is in two parts, that relating to the
negotiation of Appendices and that relating to other aspects, in particular the applicant country's
procurement regime and its consistency with the Agreement.  The timetable for the latter process runs
from the date of application for accession and for the former process from the date of the submission
of the applicant's initial offer, which should be within six months from the date of application.  Every
effort would be made to align bilateral/plurilatera l consultations that are envisaged in each of the
timetables and the timetables would be applied with the necessary flexibility to facilitate this.  Both
aspects of the timetable should normally be completed to permit the decision on accession to be taken
within 18 months of the date of application.
Indicative Timetable for General Accession Process and Review of Procurement Regime
(Timetable to run from application for accession)
0 months Application for Accession
2 months Receipt of replies to the Checklist in GPA/35
4 months Receipt of written questions from Parties
6 months First round of informal bilateral/plurilateral consultations, including responses to
written questions
8 months Receipt of any follow-up questions
10 months Further informal bilateral/plurilateral consultations
12 months Follow-up written questions and replies, if necessary
14 months Report by the acceding country on status of any steps needed to align its procurement
regime with the requirements of the GPA
16 months Further informal bilateral/plurilateral consultations, if necessary
18 months Circulation and review of the draft decision on terms of accession  including the final
offer and adoption of the Committee Decision
Indicative Timetable for Negotiation of Appendices
(Timetable to run from submission of initial offer – sometime within six months of application for
accession)
(Bilateral/plurilateral consultations on possible content of initial offer)
0 months Submission of initial offer
2 months Receipt of written questions from Parties
4 months Informal bilateral/plurilateral consultations, including  responses to written questions
7 months Submission of revised offer, if necessary
9 months Further informal bilateral/plurilateral consultations, if necessary
11 months Submission of second revised offer, if necessary
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