RESTRICTED  
 
GPA/ACC/AUS/12  
3 February 2016  
(16-0725)  Page: 1/8  
Committee on Government Procurement  Original: English  
 
  ACCESSION OF AUSTRALIA TO THE AGREEMENT ON GOVERNMENT PROCUREMENT 
REPLIES FROM AUSTRALIA TO COMMENTS AND QUESTIONS FROM THE SEPARATE CUSTOMS 
TERRITORY OF TAIWAN, PENGHU, KINMEN AND MATSU (GPA/ACC/A US/4) REGARDING  
AUSTRALIA'S INITIAL APPENDIX I OFFER 
The following communication, dated 1 February 2016,  is being circulated at the request of the 
Delegation of Australia. 
 
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AUSTRALIA'S RESPONSE TO COMMENTS AND QUESTIONS FROM THE SEPARATE 
CUSTOMS TERRITORY OF TAIWAN, PENGHU, KINMEN AND MATSU 
Australia thanks Chinese Taipei for the submission of its request for clarifications on and 
improvements in Australia's initial offer to accede to the Agreement on Government Procurement (GPA), circulated on 28 October 2015. Australia provides the following responses to the questions 
circulated by Chinese Taipei. 
 Thresholds 
 
1. It would be appreciated if Australia coul d make reductions to the thresholds for 
goods and services as proposed in Annex 2 in order to be in line with most GPA Parties. 
The current thresholds for sub-central entities in Australia's offer are similar to other GPA Parties' 
thresholds, including the United States and Canada. The Commonwealth Government consulted 
widely and at length with the States and Territories, and the mandate from State and Territory Premiers and Chief Ministers for GPA Annex 2 thresholds is consistent with State and Territory 
commitments in Australia's trade agreements. 
 
Annex 1 
 
2. Please revise Note 1 to include all admini strative units prescribed by the pertinent 
organization laws of those entities listed in this Annex. 
Australia does not have entities that are subord inate to another entity in its framework. Each 
entity should be looked at separately, as legally a subordinate relationship between entities does 
not exist. Where an entity is listed, the functi ons performed by that entity are covered, unless 
expressly excluded in Australia's Market Access offer. This includes any divisions that have specific 
functions that fall underneath that entity, such as the Australian Border Force which is a division of 
the Department of Immigration and Border Protection and is therefore covered.  
3. We suggest that Note 3.b. and 3.c. be de leted. If any of the goods and services 
listed could not be applied by  Article III of the Agreement on Government Procurement, 
please clarify. 
Note 3.b. provides a list of goods and services  required by the Australian Government to be 
excluded for the Department of Defence only. The Department of Defence works in unique and 
remote locations in Australia and internationally. The list of exclusions reflects the operational GPA/ACC/AUS/12 
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  requirements of these locations. Procurements made under an exemption must be documented 
and justified.  The Defence Intelligence Organisation, Australian Signals Directorate and the Australian Geospatial 
Intelligence Organisation are divisions which fu nction under the Department of Defence. For 
national security reasons these divisions are no t covered by the Agreement. The Department of 
Defence may conduct procurements on behalf of these divisions, Note 3.c. is clarifying that these 
procurements are not covered under the Agreement. 
 These exclusions are required by the Australian Go vernment and are included in all of Australia's 
existing trade agreements. 
 
4. We find that the exclusion to maintain the Australian industry capability program 
and its successor programs and policies is t oo broad-ranging, please delete Note 3.d. 
The Australian industry capability program aims to build capacity for Australian industry to 
participate in Defence procurement within Australia and internationally. The Australian industry capability program applies to complex procurements where value for money is still the prime 
consideration when determining whether defence capability is to be sourced from Australian or 
overseas suppliers. For further information on the Australian industry capability program please refer to the Defence Procurement Policy manual available at: http://www.defence.gov.au/dmo/doi ngbusiness/procuremen tdefence/policies/de fencepolicyprocur
ementmanual/ . 
 
The Australian Government does not intend for this program to be used at any time to exclude any 
particular procurement or procurements that would otherwise be covered. Defence procurement 
must demonstrate value for money.  
This exclusion is required by the Australian Government and is included in all of Australia's existing 
trade agreements.  
Annex 2 
 
5. Please revise Note to include all administ rative units prescribed by the pertinent 
organization laws of those entities listed in this Annex. 
The Commonwealth Government consulted widely and at length with the States and Territories on 
which entities to commit to in the negotiations, and the mandate from State and Territory Premiers and Chief Ministers for GPA Annex 2 entities is consistent with State and Territory 
commitments in Australia's trade agreements. Wher e an entity is listed, the functions performed 
by that entity are covered, unless expressly excl uded in Australia's Market Access offer. This 
includes any divisions that have specific functions that fall underneath that entity.  
6. Please delete the exclusions of procuremen t related to the functions of the Privacy 
Commission by the Information and Privacy Commission, and procurement by Transport 
for NSW related to the functions of the Transport Construction Authority, and the 
Country Rail Infrastructure Au thority or its successor agencies for New South Wales. 
Australia requires Notes 1 and 2 under New South Wales (NSW) be included in order to accurately 
reflect those NSW entities covered by the GPA. The Commonwealth Government consulted widely 
and at length with the States and Territories, and the mandate from State and Territory Premiers 
and Chief Ministers for GPA Annex 2 entities is consistent with State and Territory commitments in Australia's trade agreements.  
The Transport Construction Authority was abolis hed on 1 November 2011 and the Country Rail 
Infrastructure Authority was abolished on 1 July 2012. The functions of both Authorities were absorbed into Transport for NSW. The exception is  necessary to cover legacy projects commenced 
under the Transport Construction Authority and the Country Rail Infrastructure Authority. 
Procurement related to the functions of the Privacy Commission in NSW has never been offered in a trade agreement and is not able to be offered in the GPA. 
 GPA/ACC/AUS/12 
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  7. Please remove the exclusion of procurem ent of services from Charles Darwin 
University for the Northern  Territory under Annex 2. 
Australia requires Note 1 under the Northern Terri tory (NT) be included because the NT maintains 
a Partnership Agreement with Charles Darwin Univ ersity which provides NT entities with an 
exemption from the NT's standard government procurement regime. 
 The Partnership Agreement with Charles Darwin Un iversity (CDU) recognises the role that the 
University plays as a major contributor to the social, economic and intellectual development of 
Northern Australia. The current Partnership Agreement operates for the period 2014-2021 and is publicly available at https://www.cdu.edu.au/government/ . Where a requirement falls under the 
core outcomes of the Partnership Agreement NT agencies may approach CDU to tender under 
select tender arrangements in accordance with the NT procurement framework. 
 8. For greater certainty, please clarify that  the covered entities for Queensland not 
only include the entities declared to be departments pursuant to section 14 of the Public 
Service Act 2008 (Qld) , but also include the listed enti ties of Motor Accident Insurance 
Commission, Nominal Defendant, Public Serv ice Commission, and Public Trust Office. 
Australia confirms that the covered entities for Queensland include the entities declared to be 
departments pursuant to section 14 of the Public Service Act 2008 (Qld) (excluding those covered by Note 1 under Queensland) and the listed en tities of Motor Accident Insurance Commission, 
Nominal Defendant, Public Service Commission and Public Trust Office. 
 
Australia notes the covered entities also include the agencies listed under certain departments in the checklist response for Queensland (please se e page 10 of the checklist document); these 
entities are captured by the statement relating to section 14 of the Public Service Act 2008 (Qld) 
as they are part of the department under whic h they are listed in the checklist document for 
Queensland. For example, the Office of State Revenue and the Queensland Government 
Statistician's Office are part of Queensland Tr easury (which is a declared department under 
section 14 of the Act).  9. Regarding the first Note under Queensland, please delete the scope of exclusion of 
procurement that delivers health , education, training and/or arts services, and delete or 
shorten the transitional period of the second Note that indicates Article XVI.2 of the GPA 
does not apply. 
Australia requires the inclusion of Note 1 under  Queensland in order to accurately reflect the 
covered entities for Queensland. The Commonwealt h Government consulted widely and at length 
with the States and Territories at head of government level on which entities to commit to in the 
negotiations. The mandate Queensland for the GPA is consistent with Australia's existing trade 
agreements.  Australia requires the inclusion of Note 2 under Queensland to enable sufficient time for the 
Queensland entities to make the necessary modifi cations to electronic systems and processes to 
comply with the requirements of point 'f.' under Article XVI.2, which requires the disclosure of a 
description of the circumstances justifying the us e of limited tendering. The procurement related 
systems currently used by the Queensland Governme nt do not readily enable the disclosure of a 
description of the circumstances justifying the use of limited tendering. A transition period would therefore be required to enable the necessary changes to systems and processes to be made. 
 
It is, however, also important to note that the Queensland Government does already have in place 
a contract disclosure requirement which would otherwise satisfy the requirements of Article XVI.2. This includes the disclosure of: 
 
 Basic details for procurements valued at AUD$10,000 and above; 
 Further additional details (over the basic details required) for procurements valued at 
AUD$10 million and above; and 
 The procurement method used for procurements valued at AUD$500,000 and above. GPA/ACC/AUS/12 
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  Further information on the Queensland Government's contract disclosure requirements is available 
at: http://www.hpw.qld.gov.au/SiteCollectionDocum ents/ProcurementGuideC ontractDisclosure.pdf . 
 
10. We suggest that the Note 1 under Western Australia be deleted, and that the GPA 
requirements be applied to the prequa lification procedures for GPA-covered 
procurement. 
Australia requires the inclusion of Note 1 under Western Australia (WA). The time and complexity 
required to assess requests to participate in a procurement from suppliers not already pre-qualified under WA's Department of Finance, Building Management and Works' Prequalification 
Scheme and Main Road's National Prequalification  System for Civil (Road and Bridge) Construction 
Contracts Scheme would have a clear, negative impact on the timely and efficient delivery of 
particular projects to the community.  
Annex 3 
 11. It would be appreciated if Australia would extend the coverage of public 
universities (e.g. Australian National University),  public hospitals, public entities, bodies 
governed by public law and public undertaki ngs operating in the utilities sectors (water, 
energy, ports and transport), and state-owned enterprises. 
The entities requested in this question that have  not been covered by Australia's trade agreements 
are unable to be offered. 
 Public universities and public hospitals are mostly operated at the sub-central level. Please see the 
below table for sub-central governments which cover public universities and public hospitals in 
Australia's offer under the GPA.  
Sub-Central Public Universities Public Hospitals 
Australian Capital Territory   
New South Wales   
Northern Territory   
Queensland   
South Australia   
Tasmania   
Victoria   
Western Australia   
 
The Australian National University, which is the only Commonwealth university, is not subject to 
the Commonwealth Procurement Rules and cannot be offered.  
Utility services such as sewage and services incidental to energy are covered in Annex 5 (Services) 
of Australia's market access offer.  Australia is not able to offer the utility entities that are requested because Australia has gone 
through 30 years of divestment and / or privatisation of public assets. That is, they are no longer 
under public ownership. Examples of privatised entities include:  
 Airports Phase 1 (Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth); 
 Airports Phase 2 (Adelaide, Parafield, Coolangatta, Darwin, Alice Springs, Tennant Creek, 
Canberra, Hobart, Launceston, Townsville, Mount Isa, Moorabbin, Jandakot, Archerfield); 
 Australian River Co. Limited (formerly Australian National Line Limited); 
 AUSSAT; 
 Australian National Railways; 
 Avalon Airport Geelong; 
 Broadcast Australia; 
 Essendon Airport Corporation; 
 Moomba - Sydney Gas Pipeline; 
 National Rail Corporation (combined sale of the National Rail Corporation & NSW's 
Freightcorp); GPA/ACC/AUS/12 
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   National Transmission Network; 
 QANTAS; 
 Snowy Mountains Engineering Corporation; 
 Sydney (Kingsford Smith) Airport Corporation; 
 Sydney Basin Airports (Bankstown, Camden, Hoxton Park); 
 Telstra (1997) (Telstra 2: 1999) (Telstra 3: 2006); 
 Port Botany; 
 Port Kembla; 
 Allgas Energy; 
 Australian Railway Group; 
 Collinsville Power Station; 
 Gladstone Power Station; 
 Millmerran Power Station; 
 Powerdirect State Gas Pipeline; 
 ElectraNet; 
 Electricity Trust of South Australia (ETSA); 
 Flinders Port (2001); 
 SAGASCO (South Australian Gas Company); 
 Torrens Island Power Station; 
 Bell Bay Power Station; 
 Roaring 40s Renewable Energy; 
 Citipower; 
 Eastern Energy; 
 Ecogen Energy; 
 Energy Brix Corporation; 
 Gascor; 
 Gasnet; 
 GFE (Gas and Fuel Exploration) Resources; 
 Hazelwood Power Station; 
 Heatane Gas; 
 Loy Yang A Power Station; 
 Loy Yang B Power Station; 
 MurrayLink Power Connector; 
 Multinet/Ikon; 
 Port of Geelong; 
 Port of Portland; 
 Powercor; 
 Powernet Victoria; 
 Solaris Power; 
 Southern Cross Station; 
 Southern Hydro; 
 Stratus/Energy 21; 
 Transmission Pipelines Australia; 
 Transurban; 
 United Energy; 
 Water Training Centre; 
 Westar/Kinetik; 
 Yallourn Energy/Yallourn Power Station; 
 Alinta Gas; 
 Dampier to Bunbury Natural Gas Pipeline; 
 Rail Freight System (Westrail); 
 The Water Corporations' Engineering and Construction Division. 
12. Please clarify if any of the entities liste d could be moved to Annex 1, such as the 
entities of "Commission" or "Authority". 
Australia will consider this request. These entities have been listed in Annex 3 for consistency with 
Australia's existing trade agreements.  GPA/ACC/AUS/12 
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  Annex 5 
 13. Since that the negotiations under the Doha Round have not reached ultimate 
consensus, please clarify the statement "and  those contained in the schedule of its 
revised Doha Round offer of May 2005" in the second paragraph. 
The statement "and those contained in the schedule of its revised Doha Round offer of May 2005" 
is included for transparency, in order to assist GPA Members to understand the commitments 
Australia is offering under the GPA in relation to services, including the limitations and conditions 
specified in Australia's revised General Agreement on Trade in Services offer. Australia's revised 
Doha Round offer of May 2005 is publicly available at: http://dfat.gov.au/international-
relations/international-organisations/ wto/Documents/wto_revised_offer.doc . 
 
14. We appreciate Australia's services cove rage, and request the inclusion of the 
following services for the sake of liberalization: 
Description  CPC Prov. Reference 
No. 
Legal services 861** 
Services incidental to resident ial and non-residential buildings 
and land sales agents 82203**, 82205** 
Leasing or rental services concerning aircraft without operator 
(excluding cabotage) 83104** 
Leasing or rental services conc erning personal and household 
goods 8320 
Advertising services (limited to TV or radio advertisements) 871** 
Market research and public opinion polling services 864 
Services relating to manage ment consulting (excluding 
arbitration and conciliation services) 866** 
Site preparation work for mining 5115 
Manufacture of radio, televisi on and communication equipment 
and apparatus, on a fee or co ntract basis, Manufacture of 
medical precision and optical instruments, watches and clocks, on a fee or contract basis, Manufacture of motor vehicles, 
trailers and semi-trailers, on a fee or contract basis, 
Manufacture of other transport eq uipment, on a fee or contract 
basis 8856-8859 
Related scientific and technical consulting services 8675 
Repair services of radio, television and communication 
equipment and apparatus, on a fee or contract basis 8865 
Repair services of medical, pr ecision and optical instruments, 
watches and clocks, on a fee or contract basis 8866 
Photographic services, Packaging services 875, 876 
Translation and interpre tation services 87905 
Convention services 87909 
Land-based international courier services 7512** 
Voice telephone services 7521** 
Packet-switched data transmissi on services, Circuit-switched 
data transmission services, Telex services 7523** 
Telegraph services 7522 
Facsimile services 7521**, 7529** 
Private leased circuit services 7522**, 7523** 
Electronic mail, Voicemail, On-line information and data-base 
retrieval, Electronic data interchange (EDI), 
Enhanced/value-added facsimile services including store and 
forward, store and retrieval, Code and protocol conversion 
services 7523** 
On-line information and/or data processing 843** 
Cellular mobile phone services 75213** 
Trunked radio services 7523**, 75213* GPA/ACC/AUS/12 
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  Mobile data services 7523** 
Radio paging services 75291* 
Motion picture or video tape prod uction services, Motion picture 
or video tape distribution services 96112, 96113 
Motion picture projection, Video-tape  projection services 96121, 96122 
Sewage services, Refuse dispos al services, Sanitation and 
similar services, Cleaning serv ices of exhaust gases, Noise 
abatement services 9401-9405 
Other environmental protecti on services not elsewhere 
classified 9409 
Insurance services 812**, 814** 
Banking and Investment Services Ex 81** 
Hotel lodging services 64110** 
Maintenance and repair of civil aircraft, Maintenance and repair 
of rail transport equipment 8868** 
Maintenance and repair of road transport equipment 6112, 8867 
 
The symbol of asterisk (*) indicates that th e service specified is a component of a more 
aggregated CPC item. 
The symbol of double asterisks (**) indicate s that the service specified constitutes only 
a part of the total range of activities covered by the CPC concordance.  
 Australia has made a reciprocal services offer based on the overall services coverage of other 
Parties. Australia will consider Chinese Taipei's request. 
 15. Please add a definition of the sy mbol of double asterisks (**). 
Australia will consider Chinese Taipei's request. 
 Annex 7 
 
16. We find that the exclusions of any form of preference to benefit small and medium 
enterprises, measures for the economic an d social advancement of Indigenous people, 
the procurement of storage and hosting of government data and related services, the 
procurement of blood and blood-related  products and services (including 
plasma-derived products), the procurement of motor vehicles, and the purchase of 
goods or services by a procuring entity as a result of an unsolicited innovative proposal 
are too broad-ranging, please delete General Note 1.a., 1.c., 1.d., 1.e., 1.f., 1.g. and 4. 
These Notes are important to the Australian Gove rnments while existing trading partners, as well 
as some WTO GPA members, maintain similar Notes. 
 
These Notes are included in all of Australia's existing trade agreement chapter text or market access offers. These Notes are also required by Australia's sub-central governments.  
17. Regarding the exclusion of procurement of goods and services outside the territory 
of the procuring Party for consumption outs ide the territory of the procuring Party, 
please reduce the scope to only exclude procurement by the Department of Foreign 
Affairs and Trade relating to the constructi on of Australia's overseas offices under 
General Note 1.j. 
Note 1.j. is required for the procurement of goods, services and construction for use outside of 
Australia and is used by Commonwealth Entities other than the Department of Foreign Affairs and 
Trade. An example of procurement outside of Austra lia is the construction of immigration detention 
centres outside of Australia, for example, in Papua New Guinea and Nauru.  
This Note is required by the Australian Government and is captured in the chapter text of 
Australia's existing trade agreements. This Note is  also contained in exemption 8 of Division 2 of 
the Commonwealth Procurement Rules. 
 GPA/ACC/AUS/12 
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  18. We find the exclusion with respect to  the maintenance or restoration of 
international peace or security too vague; for the sake of certainty, please remove 
General Note 2. 
Articles III (security exceptions) and II (exceptions in case of international aid/international 
agreements) in the text of WTO-GPA relate to national security only. Australia requires an 
exception which covers international peace and security.  
This Note is required by the Australian Government and is captured in the chapter text of 
Australia's existing trade agreements, including GA TS. This Note is included as an exemption at 
paragraph 2.6 in the Commonwealth Procurement Rules.  
19. For the sake of clarification, please pr ovide some examples of procurement funded 
by grants and sponsorship payments received  from persons not listed in Annexes 1, 2 
and 3 under General Note 3. 
This Note relates to government purchasing which is funded from grants and sponsorship from the 
private sector. In the 2013-2014 financial year the Australian War Memorial received a A$1,000,000 sponsorship from BHP to fund the es tablishment of a World War One gallery. In the 
2013-2014 financial year the National Museum of Australia received A$302,000 from the 
Australian Council for Arts to support travelling exhibitions. 
 This Note is required by the Australian Government and is captured in the chapter text of 
Australia's existing trade agreements. This Note is  also contained in exemption 4 of Division 2 of 
the Commonwealth Procurement Rules.  
20. We suggest that General Note 4 be removed, and that the GPA tendering 
procedures be applied to the solicitation procedures for GPA-covered procurement. 
 
Unsolicited innovative proposals in the Commonwealth Procurement Rules are procurements which 
are made under exceptionally advantageous conditions that arise only in the very short term and are not routine procurement from regular suppliers.  
The procurement of unsolicited innovation proposals is a condition for limited tendering and is 
included at paragraph 10.3 (c) in the Commonwealth Procurement Rules.  
This Note is required by the Australian Government and is included in all of Australia's existing 
trade agreements. This Note is also required by Australia's sub-central governments.  
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