RESTRICTED  WORLD TRADE  
ORGANIZATION  GPA/M/33 
23 January 2008 
 
 (08-0343) 
Committee on Government Procurement  
  
 
MINUTES OF THE FORMAL MEETING OF 13 DECEMBER 2007 
 
Chairman:  Mr. Nicholas Niggli (Switzerland)
 
  
1. The Chairman
 said that in preparation for the meeti ng, delegations had received an airgram 
(WTO/AIR/3125 and Corr.1 of 26 November 2007 and 11 December 2007, respectively) setting out the proposed agenda for the meeting, and an annot ated agenda (Job No. 8679 of 30 November 2007).  
The agenda, as outlined in th e airgram, was as follows: 
 A. Saudi Arabia:  request for observer status; 
 
 B. Accessions;   C. Implementation of the Agreement – notifica tion of thresholds, statistical reporting and 
the review of national im plementing legislation; 
 
 D. Modifications to the Appendices to the Agreement 
  E. Negotiations under Article XXIV:7;   F. Annual review of implementation and ope ration of the Agreement and Annual Report 
to the General Council;  and 
  G. Other business.  2. Under the last item, "Other business", the Chai rman proposed that the Committee take up the 
dates for its proposed meetings in 2008. 
3. The Committee adopted
 the above agenda, taking into consideration the Chairman's 
suggestion regarding other business. 
A. SAUDI ARABIA :  REQUEST FOR OBSERVER STATUS  
4. The Chairman  recalled that in April 2007, Saudi Arabia had applied to participate as an 
observer in the Committee on Government Procurement.1  At its informal meeting on 26 June 2007, 
the Committee had agreed to invite the delegation of  Saudi Arabia to observe its proceedings on an 
ad hoc and continuing basis pending a decision of  the Committee on its observership in the course of 
the end of year formal meeting.  Since then, Saudi Arabia had been attending the informal meetings of 
the Committee on the agreed basis.  He invited the Committee to take a decision on Saudi Arabia's 
application. 
5. The Committee agreed  to grant observer status to Saudi Arabia. 
                                                      
1 GPA/W/298, dated 23 April 2007. GPA/M/33 
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  6. The Chairman
, on behalf of the Committee, welcomed Saudi Arabia as an observer of the 
Committee. 
7. The representative of Saudi Arabia  thanked GPA Parties and the Secretariat for facilitating 
Saudi Arabia's formal admission as an observer.  He said that his delegation looked forward to 
participating in the Committee's future deliberat ions and to becoming better educated in the 
subject-matter of the Agreement and the complex work  of the Committee.  Further, he hoped that the 
work of the Committee would always be conducted in a clear and transparent manner. 
8. The representatives of the United States  and the European Communities  offered any 
necessary assistance to Saudi Arabia – both bilate rally and in the Committee – to facilitate its 
consideration of the Agreement.  Conti nuing, the representative of the United States  encouraged 
Saudi Arabia to take the next step and initiate its accession to the Agreement as soon as possible. 
B. ACCESSIONS  
9. The Chairman  said that, as of the date of the meeting, eight WTO Members had applied for 
accession to the Agreement on Government Procurement:  Albania, Georgia, Jordan, the Kyrgyz Republic, Moldova, Oman, Panama and Ch inese Taipei.  Continuing, with regard to the 
pending accession of Jordan, he noted that at its meetings in the weeks of 18 April, 26 June and 
2 October 2007, the Committee had held informal pl urilateral discussions on that country's accession.  
The discussions had been facilitated by the active par ticipation of the delegation of Jordan, by the 
circulation of written comments and questions by several GPA Parties and by written responses and related documentation provided by Jo rdan.  Following the discussion in June 2007, the Secretariat had 
prepared a note on outstanding issues regarding Jord an's coverage offer.  For the plurilateral 
discussion that took place on 2 October 2007, Jordan had submitted two informal  papers, on its third 
revised offer and an updated list of non-sensitive proc urements.  The Chairman further recalled that 
Jordan had sought accession in July 2000
2, had replied to the GPA/35 checklist in December 20003 
and had submitted its entity  offer in February 20034,  its revised entity offer in September 20045, and 
its second revised entity offer in October 2006.6  He expressed the hope that, in view of all of the 
work that had been done during the year and prev iously, Jordan's accession could be completed early 
in the New Year. 
10. The representative of the United States  said that her delegation was eager to see the accession 
of Jordan brought to closure as soon as possible;  to that end, her delegation was prepared to assist the 
delegation of Jordan on a bilateral basis. 
11. With respect to the accession of Albania, the Chairman  said that on 3 December 2007, 
Albania had made a notification to the Committee regarding its national procurement legislation.7 
12. Continuing, the Chairman recalled that a further six WTO Members had provisions in their 
respective Protocols of Accession to the WTO re garding accession to the Agreement on Government 
Procurement.  These were:  Armenia, China, Cr oatia, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, 
Mongolia and Saudi Arabia.  With regard to China, he noted that in the course of its trade policy 
                                                      
2 GPA/38, dated 19 July 2000. 
3 GPA/W/124, dated 5 December 2000. 
4 GPA/SPEC/29, dated 20 February 2003. 
5 GPA/ACC/JOR/4, dated 30 September 2004. 
6 GPA/ACC/JOR/9, dated 31 October 2006. 
7 GPA/ACC/ALB/1, dated 3 December 2007.  GPA/M/33 
 Page 3 
 
 
  review in 2006, China had announced its intention to formally initiate its accession to the Agreement 
on Government Procurement by tabling its initial Appendix I offer no later than 31 December 2007.8 
13. The representative of China  confirmed that China was working on its promise to initiate 
negotiations regarding its accession to the Agreement by tabling an offer before the end of this year.  
Delegations welcomed China's confirmation.9 
14. The Committee took note of these developments and comments. 
C. IMPLEMENTATION OF THE AGREEMENT –  NOTIFICATION OF THRESHOLDS , STATISTICAL 
REPORTING AND THE REVIEW OF NAT IONAL IMPLEMENTING LEGISLATION  
(a) Thresholds 
15. The Chairman  said that in accordance with the Decision on Modalities for Notifying 
Threshold Figures in National Currencies10, the Netherlands with respect to Aruba  had provided 
information on their threshold figures e xpressed in national currencies for 2006-2007.11 
(b) Statistical Reporting 
 
16. The Chairman  said that in line with the requirements of Article XIX:5 of the Agreement on 
Government Procurement, Norway  had reported statistics for 200412 and 200513;  and Hong Kong, 
China  had reported statistics for 2006.14 
(c) Review of National Implementing Legislation 
 
17. The Chairman  recalled that pursuant to Article XXIV :5(b) of the Agreement, Parties shall 
inform the Committee of any changes in their releva nt laws and regulations and in the administration 
of such laws and regulations.  In line with this provision, Japan  had notified a change in its national 
implementing legislation.15 
18. The Committee took note of these developments. 
D. MODIFICATIONS TO THE AP PENDICES TO THE AGREEMENT  
(a) Modifications that have been certifie d since the meeting of 8 December 2006 
19. The Chairman  said that, since the adoption of the 2006 Annual Report of the Committee 
(GPA/89, dated 11 December 2006), the following pr oposed modifications had been certified, given 
that no objections had been made in the 30-day peri od or that objections that had been made had 
subsequently been withdrawn with regard to a ll or some of the specific entities listed in such 
modifications:  (i) modification by the European Communities (GPA/MOD/EEC/2 and Add.116, 
effective as of 1 January 200717);  (ii) modification by Canada (GPA/MOD/CAN/1018, effective as of 
                                                      
8 WT/TPR/M/161, dated 6 June 2006, paragraph 156. 
9 Subsequently distributed in document GPA/ACC/CHN/1, dated 7 January 2008. 
10 GPA/1, dated 5 March 1996, Annex 3. 
11 GPA/W/295/Add.8, dated 22 May 2007. 
12 GPA/84/Add.2, dated 12 March 2007. 
13 GPA/88/Add.1, dated 12 March 2007. 
14 GPA/91, dated 9 October 2007. 
15 GPA/37/Add.4, dated 13 March 2007. 
16 Dated 17 and 21 November 2006, respectively. 
17 WT/Let/556, dated 26 January 2007. GPA/M/33 
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  22 July 2007
19);  (iii) modifications by Japan (GPA/MOD/JPN/2620, effective as of 7 February 200721; 
GPA/MOD/JPN/2822, effective as of 14 June 200723; and GPA/MOD/JPN/2924, effective as of 
9 December 200725);  and (iv) modification by Korea (GPA/MOD/KOR/9, effective as of 
17 April 200726).  Additional details regarding some of these modifications were available in the 
Annotated Agenda for the meeting. 
(b) Proposed modifications that remain outstanding 
20. The Chairman  said that, as to outstanding proposed modifications, a number of developments 
were noted in the Annotated Agenda. 
21. With respect to the outstanding proposed modifications by Canada27, the representative of 
Canada  recalled that in December 2006, Canada had submitted its updated entity list reflecting 
numerous minor name and organizational changes that  had taken place in the recent past.  Canada had 
responded in writing to questions from Japan and ha d responded verbally to questions from the 
United States and Korea.  Canada thanked th e United States and Japan for withdrawing their 
objections.  The objection of the European Communities remained outstanding. 
22. In response, the representative of the European Communities  said that his delegation had two 
concerns.  First, Canada had transferred an entity from Annex 1 to Annex 3;  the European 
Communities considered this to be a modification of coverage, given that Annex 3 was subject to 
higher thresholds compared with Anne x 1, and also that different proce dural rules applied to Annex 3.  
The European Communities considered  those rules to be less transparent because they allowed for 
more flexibility.  The change in thresholds altere d the agreed market access equilibrium.  Further, 
with respect to the matter of thresholds, the European Communities was not satisfied with the 
response provided by Canada to Japan's objection.  Secondly, Canada's General Note 6 stated that 
entities in Annexes 2 and 3 were subject to mutually  acceptable coverage;  since Parties did not have 
access to Canada's Annex 2 and Annex 3 entities, this meant that by transferring the entity to 
Annex 3, Canada was effectively excluding that entity from the scope of the Agreement.  These 
concerns had been shared with Canada in the cont ext of the bilateral covera ge negotiations earlier in 
the year.  The European Communities looked forward to a response from Canada and to an eventual 
mutually satisfactory solution to this issue. 
23. The representative of Canada  said that, with respect to the point made regarding Annex 3 in 
Canada's General Note 6, the particular entity refe rred to was listed under a new sub-heading, namely:  
"Entities Not Subject to General Note 6".  As  such, the conclusion drawn by the European 
Communities regarding coverage was incorrect.  She noted that Canada's proposed modification 
involved many other minor changes, and called on the European Communities to withdraw its 
objections with respect to all the other changes to which it had no objection. 
                                                                                                                                                                     
18 Dated 22 June 2007. 
19 WT/Let/581, dated 7 August 2007. 
20 Dated 9 January 2007. 
21 WT/Let/564, dated 5 March 2007. 
22 Dated 15 May 2007. 
23 WT/Let/577, dated 29 June 2007. 
24 Dated 9 November 2007. 
25 WT/Let/609, dated 18 December 2007. 
26 WT/Let/575, dated 8 May 2007. 
27 GPA/MOD/CAN/1, dated 19 December 2006 and GPA/MOD/CAN/1/Co rr.1, dated 12 April 2007.  GPA/M/33 
 Page 5 
 
 
  24. With regard to the outstanding proposed modification by the United States28, the 
representative of the United States  said that one Party continued to maintain an objection to this 
proposed modification.  The notification dated b ack to 2001, and her de legation had received no 
questions or other inquiries from that Party for sever al years.  The United States considered that it was 
timely to bring this matter to closure, and asked th e Party maintaining its objection to either raise 
questions or withdraw its objection. 
25. In response, the representativ e of the European Communities  said that the European 
Communities maintained its objection as it believed th at the proposed modification did not fulfil the 
condition of elimination of government control and infl uence – in particular given the strict regulation 
and control of the uranium sector in the United St ates, and the link between the Uranium Enrichment 
Corporation and the state.  His delegation had taken no te of the fact that the United States had already 
confirmed that it had unilaterally excluded the Ur anium Enrichment Corporation from the scope of 
the Agreement.  The European Communities regretted this development, given that it maintained an 
objection.  The European Communities had also take n note of the United States' recent declaration 
that it intended to increase the u se of uranium in its energy production;  his delegation had been 
following this development in order to assess the degr ee of liberalization of the uranium sector in the 
United States.  His delegation looked forward to wo rking with the delegation of the United States to 
arrive at a mutually acceptable solution.  The representative of the United States  reiterated that her 
government exercised no control or influence over th e entity's procurement.  She suggested that the 
two delegations take this ma tter up on a bilateral basis. 
26. With regard to the outstanding proposed modifications by Japan29, the representative of Japan  
said that it was his delegation's hope that the out standing objections would be withdrawn at the 
earliest possible date.  Japan had received qu estions regarding some of these outstanding 
modifications from other Parties, and would work to provide responses to them as soon as possible so 
that the modifications could become effective.  In response, the representative of the European 
Communities  said that the European Communities had raised  several questions with respect to most 
of the notifications pertaining to Japan.  In orde r to be able to find an agreeable solution, his 
delegation awaited Japan's replies to its questions. 
27. The Committee took note of these developments and comments. 
E. NEGOTIATIONS UNDER ARTICLE XXIV :7 
28. The Chairman  said that in each of the meetings held during the year, delegations had 
considered both:  (i) text-related issues;  and (ii) c overage.  In regard to text -related issues, he recalled 
that, when the provisionally agreed revised GPA te xt had been frozen in December 2006, it had been 
explicitly made subject to a legal check or rectificat ion exercise in addition to a mutually satisfactory 
outcome in the coverage negotiations.30  The legal check, which had focused on Articles I 
through XXI of the text, had been successfully completed in the course of the November 2007 
meeting week of the Committee31, building on the extensive work done over the year by delegations 
with the assistance of the Secretariat. 
29. He also recalled that, when the text was frozen, Article XXII (Final Provisions) and a few 
related passages of the text were made subject to negotiators' notes indicating that they remained open 
to substantive discussion.  Although this aspect of  the work had not yet been completed, several 
useful discussions had been held and the outstandi ng issues had been brought into a much clearer 
                                                      
28 GPA/W/153, dated 25 September 2001. 
29 GPA/W/272 and GPA/W/272/Rev.1, dated 23 September and 8 October 2003, respectively. 
30 GPA/89, dated 11 December 2006, paragraphs 20 to 22. 
31 Job No. 8274, dated 19 November 2007. GPA/M/33 
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  focus.  From the discussion, it had emerged that a decision would have to be made as to whether the 
revised GPA would be given effect as a new WT O agreement or as an amendment to the existing 
Agreement.  As a result of the wo rk done in the course of the past  several meeting weeks, the two 
approaches had now been set out in alternative draft decisions and a protocol of amendment that were attached to the text of Article XXII.  Although delegations continued to hold different positions on 
this matter, the alternatives had been clarified and th e stage had been set for th eir eventual resolution. 
30. Continuing, the Chairman noted that, in the course of the discussions on Article XXII and 
related matters, some delegations ha d raised issues concerning the lega l status of the country-specific 
derogations in Parties' schedules, especially in th e light of recent WTO jurisprudence.  Suggestions 
had been put forward for addressing this issue.  Wo rk had also been done, including on the basis of 
draft texts, on issues regarding the period of co-e xistence between the current and the revised GPA 
texts during the transition from one to the other.  Delegations had indicated that they intended to 
reflect further on these matters. 
31. A further important aspect of the Committee's wo rk during the year on text-related issues had 
been the required verification of the linguistic equivalency of the English, French and Spanish 
versions of the text.  While a number of points rema ined to be resolved regarding the equivalency of 
the text in the three WTO languages, it was also cl ear that the Committee had come a long way on this 
matter thanks to the efforts of delegations and the Secretariat translators.  He believed that this 
exercise could be wrapped up early in 2008, particular ly if the interested delegations would make a 
commitment to consult further together before the next meeting week and to bring forward mutually 
agreed solutions. 
32. A fourth important aspect of the Committee's work during the year on text-related issues had 
been the further development of the two draft Committee decisions on arbitration procedures and 
indicative criteria regarding the removal of governme ntal influence and control.  Overall, it seemed 
fair to say that significant progress had been ach ieved although important issues remained to be 
resolved regarding both draft decisions. 
33. In regard to coverage issues, the Chairman sai d that throughout the year, each of the meeting 
weeks of the Committee had also had a focus on covera ge.  Broadly, this work had had two aspects:  
first, the Committee had kept under review in a plurila teral format the state of the bilateral coverage 
negotiations;  and second, the horizont al coverage issues had been ac tively discussed, especially since 
the summer break. 
34. With regard to the first aspect, namely the bilateral coverage nego tiations, he said that, 
overall, the progress achieved over the year had been disappointing.  Initial offers from all but four 
GPA Parties had been circulated prior to or dur ing the meetings held in March 2006.  During the 
reporting year only one additional initial offer, namely that of Iceland, had been circulated.  He also 
recalled for the record that, in the course of the meet ings held in February of 2006, the delegations of 
Jordan and Chinese Taipei, which were also particip ating in the coverage ne gotiations, had confirmed 
that the offers that they had circulated to delega tions in the course of their negotiations on accession to 
the current Agreement should also be considered as their offers in the coverage negotiations.  The 
delegations that had not yet submitt ed their initial offers were Hong K ong, China;  Liechtenstein;  and 
the Netherlands in respect of Aruba.  He urged tho se delegations to submit th eir outstanding offers in 
the very near future.  As to revised offers in the coverage negotiations, these had been received from 
four delegations:  the United States, Jordan, Japan and Korea. 
35. Regarding the second aspect of the work on covera ge, i.e. the horizontal coverage issues, the 
Chairman said that interesting and constructive discuss ions had been held particularly in the course of 
the two most recent meeting weeks.  The meetings he ld in the current week had built on two separate 
sets of inputs that were requested in the course of  the previous meeting, namely:  (i) information  GPA/M/33 
 Page 7 
 
 
  provided by several delegations on their regimes app licable to small, minority and/or medium-sized 
enterprises;  and (ii) two papers analyzing aspects of  the offers currently on the table that had been 
prepared by the Secretariat, one dealing with discriminatory measures vis-à-vis  the MFN principle and 
another with services and construction services covera ge.  Concerning the first aspect, in three cases, 
namely the United States, Canada and Japan, the oral presentations made had been supported by 
written documentation;  in another, namely that of  Korea, the delegation had indicated that it would 
consider circulating a written submission following the meeting. 
36. Continuing, the Chairman said that, overall, it seemed that delegations were still some 
distance from reaching agreement in regard to the c overage aspect of the negotiations.  Even if there 
had recently been some indications of additional fl exibility, there remained wide divergences between 
delegations in their levels of ambition for the negotiations and important outstanding concerns on 
issues of achieving proper reciprocity.  Delegations also had differing views on the way forward.  On 
the other hand, all delegations had indicated th at they remained committed to the coverage 
negotiations.  Needless to say, the circulation of all delegations' revised offers by early in the coming 
year as well as the willingness of all delegations to  show flexibility would be critical to further 
progress in regard to this key aspect of the negotiations. 
F. ANNUAL REVIEW OF THE IMPLEMENTATION AND OPERATION OF THE AGREEMENT AND 
ANNUAL REPORT TO THE GENERAL COUNCIL  
37. The Chairman  noted that Article XXIV:7(a) of the Agreement on Government Procurement 
required the Committee to review annually the impl ementation and operation of the Agreement and to 
inform the General Council of developments during th e periods covered by such reviews.  A draft of 
the Committee's Annual Report to the General C ouncil covering the period from January through 
December 2007 had previously been circulated by the Secretariat.  In addition, in the course of the 
informal closing session the Secretariat had distribute d an updated version of the report, reflecting the 
changes that had been made in red-lined format.  Further, in the course of the present meeting, the 
report had been updated to reflect the latest developm ents with respect to the prospective accession of  
China.  He invited the Committee to discuss a nd adopt the report with any further necessary 
modifications and updating. 
38. The Committee adopted  its Annual Report for 2007, incorporating modifications to the draft 
that were agreed.32 
G. OTHER BUSINESS  
39. Following discussion, the Committee agreed  that the first set of informal meetings in 2008 
would take place in the week of 18-22 February 20 08.  In addition, the following other dates were 
pencilled in for meetings during the remainder of the year: 
(a) the week of 14-18 April 2008; 
(b) the week of 26-30 May 2008; 
(c) the week of 21-25 July 2008; 
(d) the week of 22-26 September 2008; 
(e) the week of 10-14 November 2008;  and 
                                                      
32 GPA/92, dated 13 December 2007. GPA/M/33 
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  (f) the week of 8-12 December 2008. 
40. The Chairman
 said that these dates were without prejudice to any further decision that Parties 
might wish to make as to the nature (formal vs . informal), length and number of Committee meetings 
in 2008.  Furthermore, the Chairman proposed th at the Committee decide, as it went along, whether a 
meeting was indeed necessary in each of the weeks that had been pencilled in, in the light of the work 
that needed to be done an d the prospects for progress. 
41. The Committee agreed  to proceed as the Chairman had proposed. 
 
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