RESTRICTED  WORLD TRADE  
ORGANIZATION  GPA/M/25 
18 January 2005 
 (05-0221) 
Committee on Government Procurement  
  
 
 
MINUTES OF THE MEETING HELD ON 16 DECEMBER 2004 
 
Chairman:  Mr. Niklas Bergström (Sweden)
 
 
 
1. The Committee adopted  the following agenda, as outlin ed in Airgram WTO/AIR/2458 of 
29 November 2004: 
A. Israel's Proposed Modification Pursuant  to Article XXIV:6(a) (GPA/MOD/ISR/1) 
 
B. Other Business 
 
A. ISRAEL 'S PROPOSED MODIFICATION PURSUANT TO ARTICLE  XXIV:6(a)  (GPA/MOD/ISR/1) 
2. The Chairman  noted that Document GPA/MOD/ISR/1, dated 19 November 2004, contained a 
communication from Israel with proposed modificati ons to Israel's Note on offsets pursuant to 
Article XXIV:6(a).  He understood that there had been informal consultations between interested 
delegations, leading to the presentation of a draft decision for adoption by the Committee. 
3. With the Chairman's introduction, the Committee adopted  the Decision.1 
4. The Chairman  opened the floor for statements on the Decision. 
5. The representative of Israel  expressed his appreciation to all Parties for the co-operation and 
good will shown during this process, considering particularly the short time Parties had had to analyse 
Israel's notification.  He thanked the Chairman and the Secretariat for their assistance and availability.  
He said that the decision gave a short-term relief to  an immediate need of Israel and, as such, it was an 
important step that showed how the evolving needs of Parties were taken into account in the context 
of the Agreement on Government Procurement.  Hi s delegation intended to continue the discussion on 
its offset rights in the course of 2005 with the objec tive of reaching a mutually agreed solution that 
would take into account the needs of Israel and all Parties with a view to reaching a new balance of 
rights and obligations. 
6. Other delegations also expressed their thanks to  Israel and the other Parties for the good co-
operation over the previous  weeks.  The representative of the United States  said that his delegation, 
as an exceptional measure, did agree to the one-year extension of Israel's commitments to reduce its 
offsets from a 30 per cent level to 20 per cent level on 1 January 2005.  His delegation recognized that 
it had the right to seeking compensatory adjustment fro m Israel for the one-year extension of Israel's 
obligation to reduce its offsets from 30 per cent to 20 per cent.  However, his delegation would not 
seek such an adjustment at this time.  He said that, with the Committee's approval of the one-year 
extension of Israel's offset obligatio n, Israel would have been allowed to maintain offsets for 15 years.  
                                                      
1 Subsequently circulated as document GPA/83, dated 17 December 2004. GPA/M/25 
Page 2  
 
  Thus, it was appropriate that after the end of the one-year extension Israel finally end its use of 
offsets.  As offsets undercut core objectives of the Agreement on Government Procurement, they 
should be used only as transitional measures, and not  as permanent fixtures of a procurement regime.  
An indefinite maintenance of offsets did not set  a helpful precedent for other WTO Members that 
might accede to the Agreement on Government Procurement. 
7. The representative of Canada
 said that his delegation was agreeing on an exceptional basis to 
this extension for one year, a fact which was noted  in the preamble of the Decision.  His delegation 
was looking forward to Israel coming forward sufficien tly in advance of the end of 2005 with a plan 
to address the future of this provision, with a view to establishing a clear phase-out of the offset in accordance with the commitments in Israel's Appendix I. 
8. The representative of Japan
 welcomed the Committee's Deci sion based on mutual agreement 
between Israel and other Parties regarding Israel's  Note to Appendix I.  His delegation hoped that 
Israel could overcome any difficulties and move to wards a stable economic situation, so as to 
implement the agreed commitment. 
9. The representative of Korea  said that his delegation had determined to join the consensus for 
this measure, and hoped that Israel would make all efforts to conform to the Decision.  He believed 
that this case had some implications for non-Parti es to the Agreement on Government Procurement.  
His delegation wished to see a more positive a nd constructive discussi on in 2005, when the 
Committee would consider again Israel's offset matters. 
10. The representative of the European Communities  said that his delegation had agreed to join 
this consensus on the terms set out in the Decisi on, which accurately reflected the state of the 
discussions and the state of his delegation's view of the matter.  His delegation expected to be 
discussing this whole subject during the course of 2005, in the context of the Committee's wider 
discussions.  He hoped that Parties could undertak e these discussions in a more measured and less 
stressful way than had been the case.  The co-ope ration that had taken place between Parties in the 
previous weeks had enabled that situation to be overcome, but this time in 2005 delegations would 
perhaps not be in quite the same situation. 
11. The Committee took note  of the statements made. 
B. OTHER BUSINESS  
Meetings in 2005 
12. Turning to other business, the Chairman  noted that at the previous meeting, the Committee 
had discussed the meeting dates for 2005, and had agreed on the weeks of 14 March, 30 May and 
10 October 2005.  However, the date of the meeting proposed for July 2005 had been left outstanding.  
The third meeting in 2005 was now scheduled for the week of 18 July, since consultations had 
confirmed that no delegation ha d a problem with that date. 
Status of GPA observers in the context of bilateral coverage negotiations  
13. Taking up the status of GPA observers in the context of bilateral coverage negotiations, the 
Chairman  noted that, according to the Decision on Moda lities, “[a]ny observer government which has 
submitted an offer with a view to participating in the revised Agreement may participate in this aspect  GPA/M/25 
 Page 3 
 
 
  of the negotiations and receive copies of requests and offers circulated by the Secretariat.”2  In light of 
this, it might be useful for any observer so wishing to  clarify whether they wished to participate in the 
bilateral coverage negotiations. 
14. The representative of Jordan  said that his delegation was wondering about the status of WTO 
Members negotiating their accession to the Agreemen t on Government Procurement in the bilateral 
coverage negotiations;  in partic ular, whether participation by GPA observers in accession to the 
Agreement on Government Procurement would entail the possibility of making requests to Parties or 
just to receive requests and offers from Parties. 
15. The Chairman  said that GPA observers participating in the bilateral coverage negotiations 
would be able to put forward requests but also receive requests. 
16. The Secretariat  said that it would circulate copies of the requests that were going to be 
submitted with regard to any observer that had opt ed to participate in the bilateral coverage 
negotiations.  He was wondering whether the representa tive of Jordan suggested  that the offer that 
Jordan had already submitted in the context of  its accession to the Agreement on Government 
Procurement should be considered an offer with a vi ew to participating in the revised Agreement, and 
whether, therefore, Jordan would want to be a par ticipant in this aspect of the coverage negotiations. 
17. The representative of Jordan  said that the preliminary answer was in the affirmative, and he 
expected to be sending a note saying that Jordan w ould be participating in the bilateral coverage 
negotiations. 
Circulation of requests in the bilateral coverage negotiations 
18. As a related issue, the Chairman  noted that requests and offers were circulated in a new 
document series (GPA/O/ country code /number ).  This would facilitate access to negotiating 
documents in the future, as well as compliance with the Decision on Modalities, which reserved 
bilateral coverage negotiations to 'p articipants', i.e. to Parties and to  only those observers that "ha[ve] 
submitted an offer with a view to par ticipating in the revised Agreement."3  Further, he said that it was 
planned to circulate requests only in the language (s) in which they had been submitted to the 
Secretariat.  Thus, the Secretariat was not intending to  systematically translate requests into all official 
WTO languages.  However, the Secretariat would be  ready to arrange for the translation of such 
documents based on specific requests from any partic ipant in the bilateral coverage negotiations. 
__________  
 
                                                      
2 GPA/79, dated 19 July 2004. 
3 Id.