RESTRICTEDWORLD TRADE
ORGANIZATIONGPA/W/109
28 February 2000
(00-0733)
Committee on Government Procurement
INDICATIVE TIME-FRAME FOR ACCESSION NEGOTIATIONS
AND REPORTING ON THE PROGRESS OF WORK
Note by the Secretariat
1. In the context of its discussion regarding the improvement of the procedures for accession
under Article XXIV:2, the Committee agreed at its October 1999 meeting that the Secretariat would
prepare a note on the establishment of an indicative time-frame for accession negotiations together
with a procedure for regular reporting to each Committee meeting on progress in bilateral
consultations (GPA/M/12, paragraph 21).  This note has been prepared in response to this request.
2. Certain basic procedures for accession negotiations have already been adopted by the
Committee in its Decision of February 1996 on the Procedures for Accession under Article XXIV:2 of
the Agreement (GPA/1, Annex 2).  This Decision reads as follows:
"1. In accordance with paragraph 2 of Article XXIV of the Agreement on Government
Procurement (1994), any government which is a Member of the WTO may accede to thisAgreement on terms to be agreed between that government and the Parties.
"2. To this effect, a government interested in accession shall communicate its interest to
the Director-General of the WTO and, through him, to the Committee on Government
Procurement and shall submit relevant information including an offer by way of appropriate
Appendices containing lists of entities and services which would be covered by the
Agreement, as well as lists of relevant publications, having regard to the provisions of the
Agreement, in particular Article I and, where appropriate, Article V.
"3. The government interested in accession shall hold consultations with the Parties to
the Agreement on the terms for its accession to the Agreement.
"4. With a view to facilitating accession, the Committee on Government Procurement
shall establish a working party if the applicant government, or any Party to the Agreement, so
requests.  The working party should examine:  (i) the coverage offer made by the applicantgovernment;  and (ii) relevant information pertaining to export opportunities in the markets of
the Parties, taking into account the existing a nd potential export capabilities of the applicant
government and export opportunities for the Parties in the market of the applicant
government.
"5. Upon a decision by the Committee on Government Procurement agreeing to the terms
of accession including the lists of entities and services as well as of  relevant publications of
the applicant government, the applicant govern ment shall deposit with the Director-General
of the WTO an instrument of accession which states the terms so agreed.  The applicant
government's lists of entities, services and publications in their authentic WTO language(s)
shall be appended to the Agreement."GPA/W/109
Page 2
3. Attached is a table setting out a suggested indicative timetable for accession negotiations.  It
will be noted that the table does not specifically include the option of establishing a working party, as
provided for under paragraph 4 of the above Decision.  The reason is that, in practice, this option has
not been availed of so far.  However, should an applicant government or any Party to the Agreement
request the establishment of such a working party, consequential modifications would need to bemade to the suggested indicative timetable.
4. The suggested indicative timetable seeks to take into account the fact that accession
negotiations have two main aspects and involve basically two mechanisms.  The first aspect is the
negotiation of an agreed coverage to be reflected in Appendices containing lists of entities and
services as well as lists of relevant publications.  The second is ensuring the consistency of the
applicable national legislation with the provisions of the Agreement.  The two main mechanisms used
for these purposes are bilateral consultations between an acceding country and interested Parties andplurilateral consultations.  The negotiations on commitments to be included in the Appendices are
more focused on bilateral consultations whereas the other aspect of the negotiations is largely
conducted through the plurilateral mechanism.  These two aspects and mechanisms overlap to some
extent and should proceed in parallel.  As the Committee has already indicated, it is important that
there should be a regular plurilateral review of the bilateral parts of the accession process and, ofcourse, the results of both aspects of the negotiations must come together at the plurilateral level in
the preparation and adoption of a decision setting out the terms of accession.
5. It will be noted that it is not suggested that an applicant country should necessarily be
required to submit its initial offer on coverage at the same time as its application for accession.  On
the whole, in the accessions so far, applicant countr ies have submitted their initial offer together with
their application for accession, but paragraph 2 of the Committee Decision of February 1996 would
not seem to necessarily require this.  There may be merit in providing for the possibility of an initial
round of plurilateral and bilateral discussions before requiring the applicant to submit an initial offer,
without of course preventing a country from submitting an initial offer at the same time as its
application if it is in a position to do so.
6. With regard to the largely plurilateral process of provision by the applicant country of
information on its procurement regime, the Committee already has before it a Checklist of Issues that
has been prepared by the Secretariat, at the reques t of the Committee, to act as a guide to applicant
countries in submitting such information (Job No. 5761).  This draft Checklist is awaiting action by
the Committee.  It is suggested in the attached i ndicative timetable that, following the circulation of
the responses to the Checklist and other relevant data, provision might be made for Parties to seek
further clarification of the applicable legislation and procedures through a question and answerprocedure.  The questions put and answers provided would be circulated to all Parties.  If necessary,
provision could also be made for follow-up questions and answers.
7. In its request for the preparation of this note, the Secretariat was asked to consider the
question of a procedure for regular reporting to each Committee meeting on progress in the bilateral
consultations.  Hitherto, the Committee's overview of accession negotiations has mainly consisted ofthe acceding country or interested Parties reportin g orally to the Committee at its meetings on an ad
hoc basis.  To provide a more systematic basis for the Committee's overview of the accession process
and to improve transparency, consideration might be given to providing to the Committee, prior to
each of its meetings, a brief note outlining the state of play in the accession process of each applicant.
This might be done, for example, through the annotated provisional agenda, which is circulated by theSecretariat prior to each Committee meeting.  The information contained therein could be updated at
the meeting, where necessary, by the Chair, the applicant country and parties.  Based on this, the
Committee might take stock of the progress of each accession process and, where appropriate, the
Chair might seek to draw conclusions about moving to the next stage of the indicative timetable.GPA/W/109
Page 3
8. The suggested indicative timetable envisages that the accession process, from the date of the
application to the adoption of the decision containing the terms of accession, should normally be
completed within 15 months.  Parties are invited to consider whether this is an appropriate time-frame
to set as a goal as well as the appropriateness of the time-frames envisaged for the various steps
within it.  It would, of course, have to be unde rstood that a certain degree of flexibility would be
necessary to take account of such matters as the state of preparation of the acceding country, the
complexity of its procurement regime and government structure and the timing of Committee
meetings.
9. The work involved in the provision of relevant information on national procurement regimes,
any amendments to such regimes required and the preparation of offers by an acceding developing
country may require technical cooperation, for example in the form of advice and assistance from
Parties and the Secretariat, country visits and training.  At the outset of the accession process, theSecretariat might enter into contact with the applicant country with a view to drawing up a technical
cooperation programme for that country, taking into account its specific needs and circumstances.
Parties should be ready to make resources available bilaterally and/or through the Secretariat for this
purpose.GPA/W/109
Page 4
Suggested Indicative Timetable for the Accession Process
Indicative
timetableConsultations on Procurement
RegimeConsultations on Appendices
0 Application for accession
1½ months Receipt of replies to the Checklist by
the acceding country
3 months Receipt of written questions from
PartiesBilateral consultations including on
possible scope of initial offer
4½ months Receipt of written responses by the
acceding country.  Clarification of
outstanding issues, including follow-
up written questions and replies, if
necessarySubmission of initial offer and bilateral
consultations on it
12 months Submission of revised offer, if necessary.
Further bilateral consultations, if
necessary
14 months Circulation and review of the draft decision on terms of accession
including the final offer
15 months Adoption of decision containing the terms of accession
__________