RESTRICTED  
  
GPA/M/78  
 
16 April 2020  
(20-2972) Page: 1/5 
Committee on Government Procurement    
 
MINUTES OF THE FORMA L MEETING OF 26 FEBR UARY 2020  
CHAIR MR CARLOS VAND ERLOO (CANADA)  
The Chair said that, in preparation for the meeting, delegations had received an airgram1 setting out 
the proposed agenda, which was as follows:  
• Chairmanship of the Committee in 2020;  
• Request for Observer Status: United Kingdom (GPA/151, dated 14 February  2020);  
• Application for Accession to the Agreement: Kazakhstan (GPA/150, dated 
2 December  2019);  
• Committee's Draft Decision Concerning GPA Documents to be Circulated in Future 
(Attachment 1 to document RD/GPA/68/Add.3, dated 6 January 2020); and  
• Other Bus iness, if any.  
Concerning the first agenda item, the Chair said that in  the event that he would be confirmed as 
the Chair for 2020, he would defer his statement to the end of the meeting. His statement would 
outline some aspirations that the Committee migh t hope to achieve for the year.  He would, 
subsequently, open the floor for any delegations that wished to speak.  
Regarding Other Business, the Chair said that he would recall the dates that had been reserved for 
further substantive meetings of the Committe e in 2020. He said that he would also share further 
information on the proposed process for the circulation of an update by the Chair on the work of 
the Committee since December 2019 in the lead -up to MC12.  
No other items of other business had been propose d by delegations.  
The Committee adopted  the agenda, with the clarifications noted above.  
1  CHAIRMANSHIP OF THE COMMITTEE IN 2020  
1.1.  The Chair recalled that, in his email dated 31 January 2020, he had informed delegations of 
his availability to serve as Chair of  the Committee through 2020. The Secretariat had not been 
informed that any delegation was unable to support his re -election or that any other candidate was 
seeking the position. In this context, it was his understanding that delegations wished him to 
continue as Chair through 2020.  
1.2.  The Committee re-elected  Mr Carlos VANDERLOO (Canada) as its Chair for 2020. The Chair 
thanked delegations for the continued trust placed in him and said that it was an honour to serve as 
Chair of the Committee. He said that he would reopen this agenda item to make a brief statement 
and provide a proposed timeline for the election of a new Chair for the year 2021. Delegations would 
likewise have an opportunity to make any statements.  
 
1 WTO/AIR/GPA/20, dated  14 February 2020.  GPA/M/78  
 
- 2 - 
 
  2  REQUEST FOR OBSERVER  STATUS: UNITED KING DOM  
2.1.  The Chair said that a request for observer status in the Committee had been circulated by 
the United Kingdom in February 2020 (GPA/151, dated 14 February 2020). Pursuant to Article XXI:4 
of the revised GPA, "any WTO Member that is not a Party to this Agreeme nt shall be entitled to 
participate in the Committee as an observer by submitting a written notice to the Committee". He 
added that in its communication, the United Kingdom had conveyed notice of its intention to 
participate in the WTO Committee on Governm ent Procurement as an observer and requested that 
the Committee take note of its communication at the next meeting.  
2.2.  The Committee took note  of the request for observer status by the United Kingdom.  
2.3.  The representative of the European Union  recalled that, since 1 February 2020, the 
United  Kingdom was no longer a member State of the European Union. The European Union and 
the United Kingdom had adopted a Withdrawal Agreement which provided for a transition period 
during which European Union la w applied to and in the United Kingdom. This included the fact that 
the United Kingdom was bound by the obligations stemming from the international agreements 
concluded by the European Union, such as the GPA. The Decision of the Committee on Government 
Procurement of February 2019 (GPA/CD/2) had acknowledged that arrangement and provided that, 
during such transition period, the United Kingdom was treated as a member State of the European 
Union. In that respect, he reminded the Committee that the European Un ion continued to represent 
the United Kingdom during the transition period as regards all matters related to the implementation 
of the GPA. The European Union looked forward to finalizing the process for the accession of the 
United Kingdom to the GPA in it s own right in line with the Committee decision of February 2019.  
2.4.  The representative of the Republic of Korea  said that Korea had had a bilateral meeting with 
the United Kingdom. The meeting had been very constructive and helpful for improving mutual 
understanding. Korea welcomed the request of the United Kingdom to participate in the Committee 
as an observer and  hoped that the United Kingdom would complete its domestic procedures as soon 
as possible and be able to join this Committee as a full -fledged Party within the transition period 
without a legal hiatus. As it had been the case thus far, Korea expected the g overnment procurement 
market of the United Kingdom to operate constructively in a fair, transparent and open manner. 
Korea also expected that the remaining bilateral issues between Korea and the United Kingdom could 
be resolved in the very near future.  
3  APPLICATION FOR ACCESSI ON TO THE AGREEMENT:  KAZAKHSTAN  
3.1.  The Chair recalled that in keeping with its commitment that had been undertaken in the course 
of its accession to the WTO, Kazakhstan had submitted its application for accession to the GPA on 
29 November  2019. At its end -of-year meeting that had been held on 3  December  2019, 
the Committee had already welcomed and appreciated Kazakhstan's submission of its application 
for accession to the Agreement and expressed the hope to receive Kazakhstan's initial mark et access 
offer and its replies to the Checklist of Issues in 2020.  
3.2.  The representative of Kazakhstan  said that at the end of 2015, upon joining the WTO, 
Kazakhstan had undertaken a commitment to initiate negotiations for membership in the GPA within 
four y ears after the WTO accession. Since becoming a WTO member, Kazakhstan had continued to 
implement reforms undertaken during its accession process in order to align its trade and economic 
regime with the WTO norms and its commitments. Kazakhstan's national " Law on Government 
Procurement" (the Law) had been adopted in December 2015 and provided for more transparency 
and liberalization of the government procurement regulation, and sought approximation to 
the highest standards in the sphere of government procure ment. For the purposes of ensuring 
transparency, 100% of procurement procedures had been switched to electronic format. The new 
government procurement portal provided for technological integration with the national treasury, 
meaning that the procedure was digitalized from the moment of planning the procurement until the 
implementation of obligations under the procurement contract. The Law also provided for conclusion 
of a contract exclusively in an electronic format. All of this enabled having access to all  the data at 
every stage of procurement, broadening the opportunities to audit and monitor, using preventative 
measures that allowed the detection of infringements already at the stages of publication of notices 
and conducting the selection of suppliers. T he Law allowed for suspension of a procurement 
procedure in case of such infringements before completion of the procurement procedure. The Law GPA/M/78  
 
- 3 - 
 
  also contained a method of procurement via pre -qualification of suppliers, in order to facilitate the 
process of selecting suppliers. The new provisions of the Law obliged the contracting authorities to 
describe and document in detail the reasons for rejecting bids to ensure that they were not rejected 
on formal grounds. The Law also stipulated provisions on prelimin ary review of technical 
specifications, with a view to solving problems related to drafting of specifications for a particular 
supplier.  
3.3.  Kazakhstan added that all preferences for domestic suppliers on nationality grounds had been 
removed in order to bring the national legislation into compliance with the Treaty on the Eurasian 
Economic Union. The Law stipulated that access to Kazakhstan's public procurement market would 
be provided on a reciprocal basis for those countries with whom Kazakhstan had concluded  and 
ratified international treaties. This approach was in line with international practice. She hoped that 
all of this demonstrated good progress in improving Kazakhstan's government procurement 
legislation. Kazakhstan reiterated that its Ministry of Trad e and Integration as the national 
coordinating body on WTO issues had been working on a draft initial offer since 2018 and hoped 
that, after completing its domestic process, Kazakhstan would be able to submit its initial offer for 
GPA Parties' consideratio n in a near future.  
3.4.  The representative of the European Union  welcomed and supported Kazakhstan's commitment 
to apply for accession to the GPA. He encouraged Kazakhstan to swiftly take the necessary steps to 
submit the replies to the Checklist of Issues as well as its initial market access offer. The European 
Union looked forward to meeting the delegation of Kazakhstan during the next GPA Committee 
meeting and hoped to welcome Kazakhstan to the GPA club soon.  
3.5.  The representative of the United States of Americ a welcomed Kazakhstan's application for GPA 
accession and looked forward to receiving an initial market access offer and the replies to 
the Checklist of Issues so that the Parties could learn more about the procurement procedures within 
Kazakhstan. The Uni ted States was encouraged by the advanced e -procurement system that 
Kazakhstan already had in place and looked forward to working with Kazakhstan on its GPA 
accession.  
3.6.  The representative of Canada  welcomed Kazakhstan's application for accession to the GPA and 
the capital -based delegation present at the meeting. Canada looked forward to receiving 
Kazakhstan's initial market access offer and replies to the Checklist of Issues later that year and 
hoped to work closely with Kazakhstan in its accession process.  
3.7.  The representative of Australia  warmly welcomed Kazakhstan's application for accession and 
looked forward to cooperating with Kazakhstan in the Committee on its accession.  
3.8.  The representative of Japan  appreciated the application of Kazakhstan for accession to the GPA 
and believed that that step contributed to giving new momentum not only for Kazakhstan but also 
for the whole membership of the GPA. Japan was ready to engage constructively with Kazakhstan 
for the realization of its accession to the GPA.  
3.9.  The re presentative of Switzerland  welcomed the delegation of Kazakhstan and appreciated 
the request of Kazakhstan to start negotiations to accede to the GPA. Switzerland considered 
the GPA an important tool to promote open and transparent rules for trade in gove rnment 
procurement, contributing to sustainable growth, job creation and in the end economic development. 
He hoped that the willingness expressed by Kazakhstan would now be followed by the commitment 
to engage smoothly and in a constructive manner in the p rocess of negotiations. Switzerland was 
ready to cooperate with Kazakhstan and was looking forward to receiving an initial offer and 
the responses to the questionnaire Checklist of issues in the near future.  
3.10.   The representative of the Separate Customs Terri tory of Taiwan, Penghu, Kinmen and Matsu  
joined other delegations to warmly welcome Kazakhstan's commitment to initiating the accession 
process to the GPA. He said that looked forward to receiving its initial market offer at the earliest 
and would engage w ith Kazakhstan constructively in the Committee going forward.  
3.11.   The representative of the Republic of Korea  and Singapore  welcomed the application for 
accession of Kazakhstan to the GPA and looked forward to receiving the market access offer of 
Kazakhstan in  the near future.  GPA/M/78  
 
- 4 - 
 
  3.12.   The representative of Kazakhstan  expressed her gratitude to the Committee and said that 
Kazakhstan would be ready to submit an initial offer in the nearest future.  
3.13.   The Chair joined Parties in welcoming Kazakhstan's request as a very posit ive development 
and reiterated that a lot of interest had been expressed in this accession process. He encouraged 
Kazakhstan to reach out to the Parties, if possible intersessionally, and to send capital -based 
delegations to Committee meetings and looked f orward to receiving the replies to the Checklist of 
issues and the initial market access offer as soon as possible.  
4  COMMITTEE'S DRAFT DE CISION CONCERNING GP A DOCUMENTS TO BE CI RCULATED IN 
FUTURE (ATTACHMENT 1  TO DOCUMENT RD/GPA/ 68/ADD.3, DATED 6 JA NUARY 20 20) 
4.1.  The Chair recalled that a Note by the Secretariat on procedures relating to the circulation, 
restriction/derestriction and translation of documents had first been circulated for the Committee's 
consideration on 11 October 2018 (RD/GPA/68). Subsequently , a draft decision concerning GPA 
documents to be circulated in the future had been provided to Parties for their consideration as 
Attachment 1 to a revision of that note (RD/GPA/68/Add.3, dated 6 January 2020), and the Chair 
had invited Parties to use the  time available until this meeting to seek the necessary approvals for 
a possible adoption of the decision.  
4.2.  Based on his consultations with Parties, his understanding was that some delegations needed 
more time to complete the required internal processes. T herefore, as had been indicated in the 
invitation e -mail of 14 February , he invited all delegations to continue to seek all necessary approvals 
with a view to a possible adoption of the draft decision at the next meeting and to keep him informed 
of their p rogress in this regard. He added that in case delegations had any additional requests for 
clarification, questions or comments, an opportunity would be provided for further discussion in 
the informal session to be held after the formal meeting.  
5  CHAIR'S STA TEMENT ON HOPES AND ASPIRATIONS FOR 2020  
5.1.  The Chair, outlining his goals and aspirations for the Committee for the year, said that his belief 
was that 2020 could be another significant year for the Committee, with important progress being 
made on diverse as pects of its work. In this context, the Committee might wish to consider working 
towards progress in the following areas, noting that all suggestions made were subject to 
the Committee's evolving interests and relevant constraints:  
• First, concerning the en try into force of the revised Agreement, he trusted that the one 
delegation that still had to accept the 2012 Protocol amending the GPA would complete all 
remaining steps in 2020, with a view to having the revised Agreement enter into force for it 
as early  as possible;  
• Second, he hoped that the Committee would continue to make good progress on pending 
and future accessions to the Agreement. Today's discussion on Kazakhstan's recent 
application for accession was very encouraging in this regard. With the nece ssary political 
will and efforts, the Committee also faced the prospect of completing one or more of the 
advanced accession processes that it had moved forward in 2019. He also noted with 
pleasure that the Committee could expect to hear during the informal  meeting from a good 
number of WTO Members with commitments to accede to the GPA and/or accession 
processes that had been inactive for some time. He also hoped that there would be new 
developments with these WTO Members in the course of the year.  
• Third, he  hoped that the Committee's track record of attracting interest from the wider WTO 
Membership in the form of requests for observership would also continue in 2020. Ideally, 
the Committee would see more such requests from a diverse set of economies.  
• As a fo urth broad area of interest, he trusted that the Committee would continue to move 
forward purposefully in regard to its various agreed Work Programmes. He recalled that 
these were first and foremost exercises to enhance the understanding of each other's 
procurement systems and expressed his belief that they had served the Committee well in 
this regard. He would be pleased if the Committee could find a way to recognize 
the important work that had been done, in whatever way delegations saw fit.  GPA/M/78  
 
- 5 - 
 
  • Fifth, he very much looked forward to the first informal workshop to be held in October to 
further enhance information -sharing and transparency in the GPA Committee. He invited all 
delegations to contribute and to make the event a success. All delegations' ideas and  
suggestions for the organization of the workshop were very welcome.  
• Finally, regarding the e -GPA system, the Committee would be kept informed by the 
Secretariat over the year regarding further improvements to the existing system that were 
being developed.  He hoped that the Committee would be able to benefit from new 
functionalities in the near future.  
5.2.  For transparency, the Chair made one additional observation. Specifically, he informed 
the Committee that he intended to step down as Chair at the end of 202 0. In that context, he asked 
Parties to start thinking of candidates who could serve as Chair in 2021 and provide their suggestions 
in preparation of the May Committee meeting. He added that he would do his best to facilitate any 
exchanges on the choice of  his successor, through informal consultations with delegations and 
the candidates, in an effort to finalize the selection process at the October or end -of-year meeting.  
6  OTHER BUSINESS  
6.1.  The Chair recalled that the dates that had been previously reserved for  further substantive 
meetings of the Committee in 2020, beyond the present meeting, as agreed at the end -of-year 
Committee meeting in 2019, were those of the week beginning 4 May 2020 , including plurilateral 
sessions to take place on Wednesday, 6 May 2020.  As usual, Monday and Tuesday of the week would 
be set aside for bilateral/small group meetings.2 
6.2.  The Chair said that at the May meeting, he would also briefly outline the main items that would 
be contained in his update for the General Council in the lead -up to MC12. Short updates from WTO 
committee chairs on the work undertaken in their committees si nce December 2019 had been 
requested by the General Council. In that regard, the Secretariat had been informed that the updates 
of committee chairs would need to be transmitted to the General Council prior to its meeting to be 
held in late May. The Committ ee therefore would have the opportunity to reflect, in the update, any 
items up to and including its May meeting. In light of this, the Chair intended to circulate his update 
shortly after the Committee's May meetings, with a short period for consideration  by Parties before 
the update would be transmitted to the General Council.3 
6.3.  Regarding the October Committee meetings and the back -to-back workshop, following the 
Chair's email dated 20 December 2019 regarding the need to reschedule that meeting to avoid 
a conflict with the 2020 WTO Public Forum, the Secretariat had received further instructions 
regarding the dates of the Forum. The Public Forum dates had now been changed to the period from 
29 September to 2 October 2020. The Chair therefore proposed to move  the Committee's plurilateral 
sessions back to the date that had been originally agreed, i.e. Wednesday, 7 October 2020 . Monday 
and Tuesday of that week (5 and 6 October) would be set aside for bilateral meetings between 
delegations, and Thursday (8 Octobe r) would be reserved for the Committee's workshop for 
enhancing information -sharing.  
6.4.  For completeness, the Committee's end -of-year housekeeping meeting was scheduled for 
18 November 2020. Participation by Geneva -based officials would suffice for the housek eeping 
meeting. The Chair reserved the possibility of scheduling additional short meetings, to be attended 
by Geneva officials only, as necessary to respond to contingencies.  
 
__________  
 
2 In light of  the COVID -19 pandemic, all WTO meetings are suspended until further notice. The dates for 
the Committee meeting in May 2020 will be reviewed by the Chair in coordination with Parties and the WTO 
Secretariat. Any changes to the meeting date or meeting arra ngements will be communicated at an appropriate 
time. 
3 Due to the postponement of MC12 in light of the COVID -19 pandemic, no such update will be required 
in May 2020. Further information regarding preparations for MC12 will be communicated through the usu al 
channels at an appropriate time.