RESTRICTED
GENERAL AGREEMENT GPA/IC/W/21
4August 1994
ONTARIFFS AND TRADE
(94-1571)
Interim Committee onGovernment Procurement
COMPILATION OFTEXTS OFPROCEDURAL DECISIONS ADOPTED BYTHE
COMMITTEE OFTHE AGREEMENT ONGOVERNMENT
PROCUREMENT PRESENTLY INFORCE
Prepared bytheSecretariat
Thiscompilation isintended tofacilitate consideration bytheInterim Committee ofpreparatory
action required inrelation tothenewAgreement, particularly thatunder point Moftheagenda for
itsmeeting of29June1994.
1Pending decisions onthenomenclature fordocuments tobeusedintheWTO, thisdocument was
earlier distributed tomembers oftheInterim Committee asaninformal document.GPA/IC/W/2
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PARTICIPATION OFOBSERVERS
(GPR/M/1, Annex I)
TakingintoaccountthedecisionarrivedatbytheCONTRACTINGPARTIESattheirthirty-fifth
session on28November 1979(document L/4905), theCommittee agreed onthefollowing procedures
fortheparticipation ofobservers:
1. Representatives ofcontracting parties which arenotSignatories mayfollow theproceedings
oftheCommittee inanobserver capacity.
2. Representatives ofnon-signatory countries notcontracting parties, which participated inthe
multilateral tradenegotiations andwhich areinterested infollowing theproceedings oftheCommittee
inanobserver capacity, should communicate arequest totheDirector-General oftheGATT indicating
theirdesire todoso.TheCommittee shalldecide oneachrequest.
3. Observers mayparticipate inthediscussions butdecisions shallbetaken onlybySignatories.
4. TheCommittee maydeliberate onconfidential matters inspecial restricted sessions.
5. TheCommitteemayinvite,asappropriate,internationalorganizationstofollowparticularissues
oftheCommittee inanobserver capacity. Inaddition, requests from international organizations to
follow particular issues within theCommittee inanobserver capacity shallbeconsidered onacase-by-
casebytheCommittee.
ACCESSION OFCONTRACTING PARTIES TOTHE AGREEMENT
(GPR/M/1, Annex II)
1. Acontracting party interested inaccession according toArticle IX:1(b) would communicate
itsinterest totheDirector-General, submitting relevant information, including anofferbywayofa
listofentities having regard totherelevant provisions oftheAgreement, inparticular Article Iand,
where appropriate, Article III.
2. Thecommunication would becirculated toParties totheAgreement.
3. Thecontracting party interested inaccession would holdconsultations withtheParties onthe
terms foritsaccession totheAgreement.
4. Upon completion oftheconsultations andadecision bytheCommittee agreeing totheterms
ofaccession including thelistofentities, theacceding contracting partywould deposit withtheDirector-
General totheCONTRACTING PARTIES totheGATT aninstrument ofaccession which states the
terms soagreed. Thetextoftheacceding contracting party'slistofentities inEnglish, French and
Spanish would beannexed totheAgreement.GPA/IC/W/2
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EXCHANGE RATE QUESTIONS RELEVANT TOTHE THRESHOLD
REQUIREMENT INARTICLE I:1(B) OFTHE AGREEMENT
(GPR/M/24, Annex V)
Bearing inmind theDecision taken atthefirstmeeting oftheCommittee inJanuary 1981
(GPR/M/1, Annex IV),andthedecision tolower thethreshold oftheAgreement (contained in
Article I:1(b)) toSDR 130,000, theCommittee hereby amends, onatrialbasisoftwoyears, itsDecision
of1981 asfollows:
- General
EachParty willcalculate andconvert foritselfthevalue ofthethreshold ofSDR 130,000 into
itsownnational currency, itbeing understood thatthese calculations willbebased onthe
conversion ratespublished bytheIMFinitsmonthly "International Financial Statistics" (for
theEC,themember States 'currency equivalents oftheECUfordetermining thevalue ofpublic
contracts arecalculated andpublished bytheECCommission; forHong Kong, theHong Kong
dollar cross ratewith, forexample, theUSdollar canbeusedtoarrive attheconversion rate
HK$/SDR). Parties willnotify without delay totheCommittee themethod andresult oftheir
calculation, forpossible examination andchallenge intheCommittee.
- Basis forcalculation
Theconversion rateswillbetheaverage ofthedailyvalues oftherespective national currency
interms oftheSDRoverthetwo-year period preceding 1October or1November 1987, with
effect from 1January 1988. ForIsrael, Japan andSingapore theconversion ratewillbe
established inthesame wayasabove buttherelevant dateforthecalculation willbe
1January 1988(rather than1October or1November) andthenewly-established conversion
ratewilltakeeffect on1April 1988.
- Period ofvalidity ofnational thresholds
Thresholds expressed innational currencies willbefixed fortwoyears, i.e.calendar years
forallParties except Israel, Japan andSingapore, where thefiscal year(1April-31 March)
willbeused.
- Safeguard mechanism
Ifamajor change inanational currency vis-à-vis theSDR during ayearwere tocreate a
significantproblemwithregardtotheapplicationoftheAgreement,thematterwillbeconsidered
intheCommittee.
(GPR/M/25, paragraphs 75and79)
Therepresentative oftheEEC recalled thatattheOctober 1986 meeting oftheCommittee,
hisdelegation hadstated thatitwould putforward aproposal forasolution withaviewtoapermanent
settlement ofthisdispute. Atthetimeoftheadoption ofthePanel Report bytheCommittee, his
delegation hadmade itclear thatthePanel'sinterpretation oftheterm"contract value" would give
risetodifficulties inthatitdidnotpreserve aproper balance ofrights andobligations. Nevertheless,
inorder toadjust whatothers sawasanimbalance ofrights andobligations, theEEC hadsought aGPA/IC/W/2
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waytofindasolution. Hisdelegation hadalready hadoccasion toexplain that,inviewofthelack
ofharmonization ofindirect taxation between theECmember States, apureandsimple inclusion of
VATwasnotpossible. Theonlypossible solution wasaunilateral reduction inthethreshold applicable
totheCommunity byaunitary rate.Thisrateofreduction of13percentwasequivalent totheaverage
effective rateofthedifferent VAT régimes intheCommunity. Hisdelegation considered ittobea
fairandequitable solution. While hedidnotwanttodeprive theCommittee ofitsownrighttoevaluate
thiscompromise solution, hewasinstructed tostatethatthissolution, should itbeadopted, would
beaonceandforallsolution. Thiswasoftheutmost importance totheCommunity. Forreasons
ofsimplicity andoftiming, thismodification inthethreshold would beimplemented jointly withthe
newthreshold provided forintheProtocol amending theAgreement onGovernment Procurement.
TheVAT Panel casehadbrought tolightdifferences ofperception about theterm"contract value".
Italsohaddemonstrated howlittlewasknown about theincidence andlevelofindirect taxation on
government purchasing contracts. Inanendeavour toremedy thissituation, andinrecognition ofthe
Community 'scontribution towards settling thisdispute, theCommunity would hopeandexpect that
agenuine effort bemade byallParties toprovide fuller information onindirect taxrégimes andpractices
astheyapplied togovernment purchasing contracts atnational levels.
After ashort discussion, itwasagreed thatthesolution willbeconsidered asbeing accepted
bytheCommittee ifby27February 1987 noParty hadstated objections.
(GPR/M/26, paragraph 34)
TheChairman noted thatnoobjections hadbeenraised bytheagreed deadline concerning the
solution suggested intheVAT Panel case. Thissolution hadthusbeenagreed bytheCommittee.
CIRCULATION OFDOCUMENTS
(GPR/M/1, paragraphs 12and13)
TheChairman recalled thattheother NTM Committees hadadopted acommon approach on
thismatter which, intheirview, metthegeneral needfortransparency andtheCommittees 'particular,
ifoccasional, needforconfidentiality. Hetherefore proposed thataftereachmeeting, hewould issue
under hisownresponsibility aconcise noteonthemeeting tobecirculated toallcontracting parties.
TheCommittee 'sworking documents, minutes, etc.,would beissued intheGPR- series andcirculated
toallparticipants; these would beavailable toallcontracting parties upon request. Inthecaseof
sensitive documents, when theneedforconfidentiality arose (asforinstance inadispute settlement
procedure andstatistical reports submitted under Article VI:9), documents would beissued onanadhoc
basisandhavearestricted circulation, tobedetermined ineachcase. International organizations would
receive thesame documentation asother observers when theyreceived theinvitation.
TheCommittee adopted these procedures.GPA/IC/W/2
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(GPR/M/12, paragraph 9)
TheChairman agreed withthisapproach. Adding thatthequestion oftransparency hadbeen
onequestion raised byobservers intheCommittee, heannounced theCommittee 'sdecision thatin
thefuture statistics would becirculated asordinary GPRdocuments (andthusbeavailable toobservers),
thatstatistical reviews beconducted inregular Committee meetings, andthatthestatistics bederestricted
oneyearaftertheconclusion oftheannual review. Asummary of1982statistics would becirculated
inthenearfuture.2
DERESTRICTION OFDOCUMENTS
(GPR/M/1, paragraph 14)
TheCommittee agreed onaprocedure which wasbased oncustomary GATT practice and
corresponded tothedecisions taken andpractice followed intheother NTM Committees, i.e.that
working documents andminutes arenever derestricted andthattheSecretariat should make aproposal
annually regarding other documents tobederestricted attheendoftheyear; these latter documents
would bederestricted ifnodelegation objected totheproposal. TheCommittee might revert tothe
question ofthederestriction ofpanel reports anddecisions based onthese reports atfuture meetings.
Alsoinaccordance withGATT practice, restricted documents would becirculated togovernments
entitled toreceive them fortheirown, andnotforpublic, use. These documents would alsounder
certain circumstances becirculated tointernational organizations ontheunderstanding thatthisisfor
theinternal useofthesecretariats ofthese organizations andthat,forinstance, thesubstance ofthe
documents should notbecommunicated togovernments nototherwise entitled toreceive them.
(GPR/M/12, paragraph 9)
TheChairman agreed withthisapproach. Adding thatthequestion oftransparency hadbeen
onequestion raised byobservers intheCommittee, heannounced theCommittee 'sdecision thatin
thefuture statistics would becirculated asordinary GPRdocuments (andthusbeavailable toobservers),
thatstatistical reviews beconducted inregular Committee meetings, andthatthestatistics bederestricted
oneyearaftertheconclusion oftheannual review. Asummary of1982statistics would becirculated
inthenearfuture.2
NOTIFICATION OFNATIONAL IMPLEMENTING LEGISLATION
(GPR/M/1, paragraph 16)
After anexchange ofviews astotheprecise wording, theChairman proposed thefollowing
textwhich wasadopted bytheCommittee:
2Subsequently issued asGPR/W/57.GPA/IC/W/2
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"Parties willsubmit thecomplete textsoftheirnational laws, regulations andprocedures on
government procurement assoonaspossible totheSecretariat where thetextswillbeopen
forinspection. Inaddition, thebasicdocuments relating totheimplementation oftheAgreement
shallbesubmitted forinformation inaGATT language andwillbecirculated totheCommittee.
Initially, eachParty willdescribe themain elements ofitslegislation inanotetobeprepared
onthebasis ofachecklist ofissues established bytheSecretariat which willbecirculated to
theCommittee."3
TheChairman urged delegations tosubmit thenotedescribing themain elements oftheir
legislation bytheendofFebruary.
3Thechecklist hassubsequently been issued inGPR/4.