RESTRICTEDWORLD TRADE
ORGANIZATIONGPA/W/109/Rev.1
26 June 2000
(00-2587)
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 agreed at its October 1999 meeting that the Secretariat would
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 (GPA/M/12, paragraph 21).  A note was prepared in response to this request and
discussed at the March 2000 Committee meeting (GPA/W/109).  This revised version takes intoaccount the comments made by Parties at that meeting.
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 would be covered by the
Agreement, as well as lists of relevant publications, having regard to the provisions of theAgreement, 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, sorequests.  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 and potential 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 govern ment shall deposit with the Director-General
of the WTO an instrument of accession which 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."GPA/W/109/Rev.1
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3. Attached is a table setting out 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 for under paragraph 4 of the above Decision.  The reason is that, in practice, this option has
not been availed of so far.  However, should an applicant government or any Party to the Agreement
request the establishment of such a working party, consequential modifications would need to bemade 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 and
services 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 andplurilateral 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 largely
conducted 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, ofcourse, 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 it is not suggested that an applicant country should necessarily be
required to submit its initial offer on coverage at the same time as its application for accession.  On
the whole, in the accessions so far, applicant countr ies have submitted their initial offer together with
their application for accession, but paragraph 2 of the Committee Decision of February 1996 would
not seem to necessarily require this.  There may be merit in providing for the possibility of an initial
round of plurilateral and bilateral discussions before requiring the applicant to submit an initial offer,
without of course preventing a country from submitting an initial offer at the same time as its
application if it is in a position to do so.
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 other
relevant data, provision might be made for Parties to seek further clarification of the applicable
legislation and procedures through informal plurilateral consultations including a 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.
7. 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 anad 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,
prior to each of its meetings, 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 to each Committee meeting.  The information contained thereincould 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.GPA/W/109/Rev.1
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8. The suggested indicative timetable envisages that the accession process, from the date of the
application to the adoption of the decision containing the terms of accession, should normally be
completed within 24 months.  It would, of course, have to be understood that a certain degree of
flexibility would be necessary to take account of such matters as the state of preparation of the
acceding country, the complexity of its procurement regime and government structure and the timingof Committee meetings.
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.1
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ATTACHMENT
SUGGESTED INDICATIVE TIMETABLE FOR THE ACCESSION PROCESS
Indicative
timetableConsultations on Procurement
RegimeConsultations on Appendices
0 Application for accession
4 months Receipt of replies to the Checklist by
the acceding country
5 months Informal plurilateral consultations including on possible scope of initial offer
6 months Receipt of written questions from
PartiesSubmission of initial offer
8 months Receipt of written responses by the
acceding country.  Clarification ofoutstanding issues, including follow-
up written questions and replies, if
necessaryBilateral consultations
15 months Report by the acceding country on
status of any steps needed to align its
procurement regime with the
requirements of the GPASubmission of revised offer, if necessary.
Further bilateral consultations, if
necessary
18 months Submission of second revised offer, if
necessary
21 months Circulation and review of the draft decision on terms of accession
including the final offer
24 months Adoption of decision containing the terms of accession
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