ICC recommendations for WTO negotiations on transparency in government procurement

ICC position ICC reaffirms its call for WTO members to agree to formally launch the negotiation of a binding, multilateral agreement to increase transparency and due process in government procurement. ICC believes that WTO members should find a way to launch negotiations on transparency in government procurement within the Doha Development Agenda.

The government procurement market

With goods and services procured by governments comprising nearly 15 per cent of the world’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP), the conduct of government procurement sets a model for commerce throughout each nation’s markets. Accordingly, many governments have established defined rules to ensure fair and open competition, transparency, avoidance of bribery and corruption, and in some cases open trade with other nations. Most of these same nations subscribe to multinational agreements requiring common procurement practices.

Conversely, in other parts of the world, too many other nations maintain closed and opaque systems. The narrower government procurement market of those countries that neither apply the existing transparency procedures of the WTO plurilateral Agreement on Government Procurement nor maintain transparent procurement systems, is estimated to be about 5 percent of world GDP.