RESTRICTEDWORLD TRADE
ORGANIZATIONGPA/M/9
1 September 1998
(98-3356)
Committee on Government Procurement
MINUTES OF THE MEETING HELD ON 25 JUNE 1998
Chairperson:  Mrs. Helle Klem (Norway)
1. The following agenda was adopted:
A. Application for observer status
B. Relationship of the Tokyo Round Agreement on Government Procurement to the
1994 Agreement on Government Procurement
C. Modifications to the Appendices to the AgreementD. Loose-leaf system for Appendices to the Agreement
E. Accessions:
(i) Iceland(ii) Chinese Taipei
F. Newly acceded WTO Members:  MongoliaG. Review of national implementing legislationH. Statistical reporting
I. Modalities for the review of the Agreement
J. Other business
(i) Korea - Procurement of International Airport Construction Corporation
(ii) United States - Measures affecting government procurement
(iii) Canada - coverage  in Annexes 2 and 3 of Appendix I
(iv) Demonstration of the use of information technology in government
procurement
(v) The date of the next meeting.GPA/M/9
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A. Application for observer status
2. The Committee agreed to grant observer status to the Government of Lithuania, pursuant to
the decision it had taken on this matter (GPA/1, Anne x 1) and in response to the request received from
that country (GPA/W/71).
B. Relationship of the Tokyo Round Agreement on Government Procurement to the 1994
Agreement on Government Procurement
3. The Chairperson said that, at its last meeting, the Committee had discussed the legal and
procedural aspects of the relationship of the Tokyo Round Agreement on Government Procurement to
the 1994 Agreement on Government Procurement on the basis of a note prepared by the Secretariat in
response to the Committee's request (GPA/M/8, para graphs 5-10 and GPA/W/65).  The representative
of Canada said that, since all Parties to the Tokyo Round Agreement had become Parties to the 1994
Agreement, his delegation considered that the Tokyo Round Agreement had been superseded by the1994 Agreement in the light of the provisions of Article XXIV:3(c) of the 1994 Agreement.  Joined
by the representative of Switzerland, he said that in accordance with the legal opinion in the note by
the Secretariat, no formal Committee action would be required.  The representative of Japan said that
his authorities were still reviewing the legal issues involved in respect of this matter.
4. The Committee took note of the legal opinion expressed in the note by the Secretariat
circulated in document GPA/W/65, while noting that any delegation could revert to the matter at a
future meeting.
C. Modifications to the Appendices to the Agreement
5. The Chairperson said that, since the Committee's last meeting, Hong Kong, China
(GPA/W/69) and Singapore (GPA /W/70 and 72) had notified proposed modifications to their
respective Appendices.  Since no objections had been raised within the prescribed time-periods, the
modifications by Hong Kong, China had entered into force on 24 April 1998 (WT/Let/218) and themodification by Singapore in docume nt GPA/W/70 on 9 May 1998 (WT/Let/219).
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6. In regard to the proposed modifications relating to its Appendix I notified by the European
Community on 13 August 1997, the representative of the United States said that the consultations
between her delegation and the European Community regarding the modifications in documentGPA/W/51 would be concluded in the near future.  The representative of the European Community
said that, should further modifications to Appendix I result from those consultations, his delegationwould submit a note explaining them.
D. Loose-leaf system for Appendices to the Agreement
7. The Chairperson said that the Committee had agreed that the first issue of the loose-leaf
system would be postponed until after the entry into force of the extensive modifications that had
been notified by the European Community in document GPA/W/51 (c.f. item C above and GPA/M/7,paragraphs 9-10).  Meanwhile, a draft of the loose-leaf system of Appendices had been available from
15 May 1998 on the government procurement site at the WTO Homepage in order to provide
information on the Appendices including the modifications that had been certified since the signature
of the Agreement on 15 April 19 94 (http:// www.wto.org/w to/govt/loose.htm). The loose-leaf system
circulated on the Internet  included the Appendices of the European Community that were currently in
                                                     
1 The modification by Singapore in GPA/W/72 subsequently entered into force on 15 July 1998
(WT/Let/232).GPA/M/9
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effect and a reference had been made to the modifications under consideration in documents
GPA/W/51 and Add.1.  As also agreed by the Committee, the procedures agreed by the Committee
concerning certification and circulation of the loose-leaf system of schedules would be carried out
after the procedures for the certification of the proposed modifications to the Appendices of the
European Community had been completed (GPA/W/35, paragraph 4 and GPA/M/5, paragraph 20).
E. Accessions
(i) Iceland
8. The Chairperson said that  a request for accession had been received from Iceland together
with a draft offer (GPA/W/73).
9. The representative of Canada said that, without  prejudice to its consideration of Iceland's
offer, his delegation had noted that Canada figure d prominently in the Annexes to Appendix I and in
the General Notes while the respective offers of Chinese Taipei and Panama did not contain any such
reference.  He also drew attention to the objective of the review of the Agreement concerning the
elimination of  discriminatory measures.
(ii) Chinese Taipei
10. The representative of Chinese Taipei said that the Law on Government Procurement had been
promulgated by the President on 27 May 1998 and would enter into force after one year.  Chinese
Taipei would continue the ongoing consultations with certain Parties on pending issues with a view to
concluding its accession process as soon as possible.
F. Newly acceded WTO Members:  Mongolia
11. The Chairperson said that the Secretariat had sent a reminder to the delegation of Mongolia
on 12 June 1998, drawing attention to the letter by the Chairperson dated 13 November 1997
regarding the commitments undertaken by Mongolia in the Working Party on the Accession ofMongolia to the WTO (c.f. GPA/M/7, paragraph 25).
G. Review of national implementing legislation
12. The Chairperson said that, as of 25 June 1998, Canada, Korea, Norway, Switzerland, the
European Community and the United States had notified their national implementing legislation and
responses to the checklist of issues (GPA /10, GPA/12/Rev.1, GPA/ 14, GPA/15, GPA/20 and
GPA/23).  She drew attention to the arrangemen ts and schedule for the review of national
implementing legislation agreed by  the Committee at the previous meeting (GPA/M/8, paragraph 23).
Accordingly, she suggested that the Committee should initiate the review of national legislation at its
next meeting by taking up the legislation of the European Community and Korea.  Parties should
submit their written questions to these Parties by 24 August 1998 and copies should be made available
to the Secretariat which would circulate them to other Parties.2  The delegations of the European
Community and Korea should provide written responses to these questions before
30 September 1998.  The Committee so agreed .
                                                     
2 A reminder was sent to delegations on 3 August in airgram WTO/AIR/897.GPA/M/9
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H. Statistical reporting
13. The Chairperson said that, as of 25 June, Norway and Hong Kong, China had provided
statistics, respectively, for 1996 and July-December 1997 in accordance with Article XIX:5 of the
Agreement (GPA/21 and 22).
I. Modalities for the review of the Agreement
14. The Chairperson said that informal consultations had been held on 25 June 1998 on the
modalities for the three-year review on the basis of a revised informal checklist of issues, the most
recent version of which was dated 25 May 1998, and the non-papers presented by the delegation of
the United States relating to information t echnology (Job No.3842), the delegations of Norway
(Job No. 3246), the European Community (Job N o. 3869) and the United States (Job No. 3855)
respectively on statistical reporting requirements,  the delegation of the European Community onenforcement and monitoring mechanisms (Job No. 3871), the delegation of the United States on the
expansion of services coverage (Job No. 3843) and the delegation of Hong Kong, China on the
elimination of discriminatory measures (Job No. 3412).
15. The Chairperson said that the Committee had he ld informal consultations regarding a time-
frame for the negotiations under Article XXIV:7 and the overall work programme that should be
envisaged within that time-frame.  In the light of those consultations the Committee agreed to proceed
in accordance with the following proposals by the Chair, the text of which incorporates suggestions
by delegations agreed to by the Committee:
"We have two sets of points on which the Group should decide.  One is the time-
frame for the negotiations under Article XXIV:7 and the overall work programme that shouldbe envisaged within this time-frame and the other is the more immediate issue of the work
that should be envisaged for the Group's next meeting.
"On the first of these questions, I sense a widespread view that we should aim to
complete the negotiations, at least in respect of the simplification and improvement of the
Agreement, by the third WTO Ministerial to be held at the end of next year with a view to, inparticular, increasing the attractiveness of the Agreement to new members.
"If this is to be done, we would need to rese rve the whole of the fall of next year to an
intensive negotiating process.  This, in turn, would require that by the summer of next year
there would be in existence a document, reflecting the outstanding proposals, that could
constitute the basis for these negotiations.  The preparation of such a document would require
that all the proposals and suggestions for improvement of the text would have been
thoroughly discussed and digested by that time.  In order for this to be done, we might wish toset a target date of the end of April next year for the tabling of all such proposals and
suggestions – without, of course, prejudice to the right of participants to put forward at a later
date modified or additional proposals where necessary.
"To sum up therefore I would suggest the following key elements of a timetable and
work programme:
- The tabling of suggestions and proposals no later than the end of April 1999.
- The preparation of a document reflecting all outstanding proposals and
suggestions, as a basis for the final negotiating phase, no later than the
summer of 1999.  I would, of course, hope that in the course of the review
and discussion of the proposals and suggestions that would already have beenGPA/M/9
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undertaken by that time a considerable measure of agreement would already
have been reached on many points and that the number of outstanding points
left for the final negotiating phase would be kept to a manageable minimum.
- A target of the third WTO Ministerial for the completion of the negotiations,
at least on the simplification and improvement of the Agreement.
"We would in parallel continue work on the other elements of the negotiations,
namely on the elimination of discriminatory measures and practices which distort open
procurement and the expansion of the coverage of the Agreement.  We will revert at our next
meeting to the timetable and work programme for these parts of the negotiations.  To the
extent that the objective of the elimination of discriminatory measures could be achieved
through modifications to the Agreement itself, this work would also have the target date of
the third Ministerial Meeting.
"If this way of proceeding were to be acceptable to you, we would need to give some
thought to the sort of meeting schedule that should be envisaged for the remainder of this year
and for next year.  My own suggestion would be that you might consider two meetings in the
fall of this year (our October meeting already scheduled and maybe one in mid-December),
and three meetings in the first part of next year (for example February, May and July).  In thefall period of 1999, we would need to envisage a semi-continuous process of negotiation,
i.e. the Group would need to be on call for the whole period.
"WTO Members, not parties to the GPA, and other observer governments to the GPA
would be invited to participate fully in the work, it being understood that the final decision on
the outcome would remain with Parties to the GPA.
"As regards the second issue that I mentioned, namely the specific work programme
for our next meeting in October, we have already agreed:
- to revert once more to the issues of information technology and statistical
reporting;
- to revert to the issue of monitoring and enforcement, on which the
Community presented a paper today;
- furthermore, we have been advised to expect a paper from the Community on
the issue of procurement methods;
- we have also agreed that we will continue our examination of Articles I
through VI and take up Articles VII through XV.  In this regard, I encourage
participants to put forward drafting proposals in advance;
- using the Secretariat note on the types of discriminatory provisions in the
Appendices, we will discuss the reasons for the maintenance of such
provisions, any plans for their removal and what is needed for their removal;
- coverage of services.
"Of course, delegations remain free to put forward proposals or suggestions on any of
the other issues before us and I would urge them to do so.GPA/M/9
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"In order to assist this further work, the Secretariat will once more update the
Checklist of Issues.  In addition, we will revert at the next meeting to the paper proposed by
Canada for a text of the Agreement reflecting proposed changes."
 J. Other business
(i) Korea - Procurement of International Airport Construction Corporation
16. The representative of the United States said that her delegation had held informal
consultations with Korea concerning the coverage of the Korea Airport Construction Authority under
the Agreement.  The representative of Korea said that his authorities considered that the International
Airport Construction Corporation was not subject to the obligations of the Agreement.
(ii) United States - Measures affecting government procurement
17. The representative of the European Community said that his delegation had been pursuing the
consultations with the delegation of the United States concerning the legislation enacted by the
Commonwealth of Massachusetts regulating state contracts with companies doing business with or in
Myanmar (WT/DS88/1 and GPA/D2/1).
(iii) Canada - coverage  in Annexes 2 and 3 of Appendix I
18. In response to a request for information by the representative of the European Community
regarding any developments in Canada's offer, the representative of Canada said that his delegation's
stated position since the entry into force of the Agreement concerning the coverage of  sub-central
government entities and enterprises in all ten Provinces contained in its Appendix I, Annexes 2 and 3
had remained unchanged (GPA/19, paragraph 6).
(iv) Demonstration of the use of information technology in government procurement
19. The Chairperson said that a demonstration of th e application of information technology to  the
area of government procurement had been held on 24 June 1998 with the participation of experts from
Canada, the European Community, Finland, Japan, Mexico, Norway, Poland, Singapore and the
United States.
(v) The date of the next meeting
20. The Committee agreed to hold its next meeting on 7 October 1998.
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