WORLD TRADE ORGANIZATION  
ORGANISATION MONDIALE DU COMMERCE  
ORGANIZACIÓN MUNDIAL DEL COMERCIORESTRICTED 
GPA/O/V/KOR/3 
2 March 2012 
 (12-1233) 
Committee on Government Procurement Original:   English/ 
 anglais/  inglés 
 
  
VERIFICATION OF THE RESULTS OF THE NEGOTIATIONS 
UNDER ARTICLE XXIV:7 OF THE AGREEMENT 
ON GOVERNMENT PROCUREMENT 
 
Communication from the Republic of Korea
1 
  
 The following submission, dated 1 March 2012, is being circulated at the request of the 
Delegation of the Republic of Korea. 
 
 Comité des marchés publics  
 
 
VÉRIFICATION DES RÉSULTATS DES NÉGOCIATIONS 
AU TITRE DE L'ARTICLE XXIV:7 DE L'ACCORD 
SUR LES MARCHÉS PUBLICS 
 
Communication de la République de Corée
1 
   La communication ci-après, datée du 1 mars 2012, est distribuée à la demande de la délégation de la République de Corée. 
 
 Comité de Contratación Pública 
 
 
VERIFICACIÓN DE LOS RESULTADOS DE LAS NEGOCIACIONES 
PREVISTAS EN EL PÁRRAFO 7 DEL ARTÍCULO XXIV DEL 
ACUERDO SOBRE CONTRATACIÓN PÚBLICA 
 
Comunicación de la República de Corea
1 
   La siguiente comunicación, de fecha 1 de ma rzo de 2012, se distribuye a petición de la 
delegación de la República de Corea. 
 
                                                      
1 In English only./En anglais seulement./En inglés solamente.   
   GPA/O/V/KOR/3 
 Page 3 
 
 
  KOREA'S COMMENTS ON ANNEX 1 TO APPENDIX I OF 
THE EUROPEAN UNION'S FINAL OFFER 
(1 March 2012) 
 
 
Korea appreciates the European Union's (EU)  efforts to rectify its final offer by 
accommodating comments made by other Parties,  which resulted in the advance copy of 
GPA/O/V/EU/2.  Korea, however, found that some clerical errors were left unaddressed in the said 
document.  In this regard, Korea would like to br ing the EU's attention to the unaddressed items as 
follows so that the EU can clean up its final offer in a timely manner:  
1. Use of the official WTO languages 
It is requested that all entities and related headlines of Italy in the EU's Annex 1 be 
accompanied by one of the official WTO languag es, preferably English, for the purpose of 
transparency and better readability. 
 
2. Entities covered in the 1994 GPA but missing in the EU's Final Offer 
1. It is requested that the "Office of the Preside nt" and the "Office of the Clerk of the House of 
Representatives" of Malta, which are covered Annex 1 entities in the 1994 GPA, be reinstated in the 
EU's Annex 1 as the EU conducts furt her rectification in coming days. 
 2. Despite the EU's explanation to th e Parties during the plurilateral session on 
28 February 2012 that the "Office of the President" and the "Office of the Clerk of the House of Representatives" of Malta had been abolished, inform ation available strongly suggests to the contrary: 
 
(i) Firstly, Malta, as of 1 March 2012, still ope rates official websites of the President 
(http://president.gov.mt ) and the Parliament ( http://www.parlament.mt ), which 
consists of the President and the "House of  Representatives" pursuant to Article 51 of 
the Constitution of Malta.  On the homepage of the President of Malta, there is a section titled "Staff at the Office of the President", which clearly indicates the 
existence of the "Office of the President".  On the homepage of the Parliament, there 
is a section titled "Contact Us", which is li nked to the contact information of the 
"Clerk of the House".  Contents of these two websites were updated several days ago. 
 
(ii) Secondly, Articles 48 and 64 of the Cons titution of Malta establish the Office of the 
President and the Clerk of the House of Representatives, respectively. 
 
(iii) Lastly, in the 18 November 2011 edition of the Official Gazette of Malta, where 
Malta publishes its tender notices pursuant to Article IX:1 of the 1994 GPA, the 
"Clerk of the House of Representatives" notified that sealed tenders would be 
received by noon of Monday, 12 December 2011, for the "Supply, delivery and 
installation of Video Equipment at the Committee Rooms, Parliament of Malta".
1 
 
                                                      
1 The Malta Government Gazette , No. 18,833, dated 18 November 2011, pages 13, 128. GPA/O/V/KOR/3 
Page 4  
 
  3. On many occasions throughout the negotiati ons for the revised GPA, Korea expressed its 
position that there should be no retraction of entities from the EU's Annex 1 to Appendix I of the 1994 
GPA.  To this request, the EU assured that what seemed to be the retraction in the EU's offer was 
caused by clerical errors and would be rectified.  Korea still would like to believe the omission of the 
"Office of the President" and the "Office of the Clerk to the House of Representatives" of Malta has 
been unaddressed due to honest mistake and looks forw ard to the two entities being reinstated in the 
EU's rectified final offer.  4. If such significant constitutional entities as the "Office of the President" and the "Office of the Clerk of the House of Representatives" of Malta have  indeed been abolished, such fact should have 
been notified to the Committee pursuant to Article  XXIV:6 of the 1994 GPA.  If the two entities still 
exist but no longer conduct procurement on their ow n, an entity on their behalf should have been 
notified to the Committee pursuant to  Article XXIV:6 of the 1994 GPA. 
 5. If the EU does not reinstate the "Office of th e President" and the "Office of the Clerk of the 
House of Representatives" of Malta without any credib le explanation, it would be deemed retraction 
of entities from the EU's Annex 1 to Appendix I of the 1994 GPA and change to the balance of the 
political agreement reached on 15 December 2011, whic h the Parties are not supposed to seek at this 
juncture.  
3. Seemingly misplaced comma 
Comma right after "Public" in the "Ministry of Development, Public Works and Housing" of 
Romania seems to be misplaced a nd is suggested to be deleted. 
 
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