WORLD TRADE
ORGANIZATIONWT/WGTGP/5
26 September 2001
(01-4573)
REPORT (2001) OF THE WORKING GROUP ON TRANSPARENCY IN
GOVERNMENT PROCUREMENT TO THE GENERAL COUNCIL
1. The Working Group on Transparency in Government Procurement was established by a
decision at the WTO Ministerial Conference held in December 1996 "to conduct a study ontransparency in government procurement practices, taking into account national policies, and, based
on this study, to develop elements for inclusion in an appropriate agreement".
2. The period covered in this report is October 2000 - September 2001.  The work of the
Working Group up to October 2000 is described in the reports of the Working Group for 1997, 1998,
1999 and 2000 to the General Council (WT/WGTGP/1-4).  The Working Group held two meetings,respectively on 4 May and 17 September 2001 under the chairmanship of
Ambassador Ronald Saborío Soto (Costa Rica).  The reports of these meetings have been circulated in
document WT/WGTGP/M/12 and 13
1.
3. At the May meeting, the Working Group reverted to the issues before it on the basis of the
note by the Chair "List of the Issues Raised and Points Made" (JOB(99)/6782), last revised inNovember 1999.  The Chairman also made available, on his own responsibility, an annotated draft
agenda which aimed to facilitate discussion by suggesting issues under each of the substantive agenda
items that, in his view, could be the subject of further discussion (JOB(00)/3231).  As an auxiliary
informal paper for the use of Members wanting to draw on it, delegates had available to them a
revision of the informal note by the Secretariat, "List of Proposals on Items III-VII of the Checklist"(JOB(00)/3276), reflecting the proposals made on it ems III-VII in a succinct form, which identified
the source of the different proposals and summarized the written and oral comments made on these
proposals.  The Working Group heard views of a number of Members regarding the items in the note
by the Chair, "List of the Issues Raised and Points Made", and, in particular on the "definition and
scope of government procurement" and on "other matters related to transparency" .  T h e  W o r k i n g
Group also heard an exchange of views on the experience of a number of Parties regarding the
application of information technology to government procurement in their countries.  Also,information was provided on the establishment and operation of electronic procurement system in
Chile.  At this meeting, under a new agenda item "Transparency-related Provisions in Regional
Agreements on Government Procurement and Nati onal Experiences,  Parties to some regional
agreements reported on the recent developments in the work of regional fora on government
procurement, in particular in the context of th e FTAA (Free Trade Area of the Americas) negotiations
and the APEC GPEG (Government Procurement Experts Group).  Moreover, information was
provided on the treatment of government procurement in some regional trade agreements.
4. At the September meeting the Working Group adopted its report to the General Council.
5. The IMF, the World Bank, the United Nations represented by the United Nations Commission
for International Trade Law (UNCITRAL), UNCTAD and the ITC have observer status in theWorking Group.  During the period covered in this report, the Working Group considered requests for
observer status from OECD, SELA and OIC (the Or ganization for Islamic Conference) and agreed to
revert to these requests in light of the consultations on this matter by the Chairman of the
General Council.
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1 To be issued shortly.