Regional Procurement Arrangements in East Asia: Some Reflections for the WTO Rules

Abstract

This paper will provide a review of procurement provisions in East Asian RTAs as well as consider the positive and negative influences of regional procurements on the global economy and WTO negotiations. To this end, section II will examine the main features of procurement provisions on a few examples of recently signed RTAs in East Asia that might indicate some forms of "GPA party to GPA party, "GPA party to non-GPA party" and "non-GPA party to non-GPA party". The following Section III will analyze the implications of a regional approach for global procurement liberalization drawing from the experience of East Asia. Section IV will further address the effects of regional experience of WTO negotiation on Transparency in government procurement in the future, particularly focusing attention on the APEC model. The concluding remarks of this paper will be provided in section V.

In the author's view, the APEC model provides different regulatory pattern and serves as a great contributor for procurement liberalization in the Asian region. Practical lessons and experiences of APEC reveal that in formulating new rules for procurement, national practices should be first taken into account. If WTO-sponsored future negotiation would focus attention on promoting better procurement practices followed by members remaining transparent rather than a narrower focus on market access for specific developed country exports, the prospect of acceptance by developing countries will be enhanced. In this regard, adopting "non-binding" or "loose" provisions may help to overcome political obstacles to agreement and reduce regulatory costs.

Keywords: government procurement, Asia, WTO, RTA, bilateral agreement, RTAs, Doha Round