The Stalemate in China’s GPA Accession Negotiations—Is There a Way Out?

Asian Journal of WTO & International Health Law and Policy, Vol. 15, No. 1, pp. 209-258, March 2020

50 Pages Posted: 27 Apr 2020

See all articles by Marcia Don Harpaz

Marcia Don Harpaz

Hebrew University of Jerusalem

Hadas Peled

Central University of Finance and Economics

Date Written: March 27, 2020

Abstract

Why have China’s negotiations to accede to the Government Procurement Agreement (hereinafter “GPA”) dragged on for almost two decades since China’s commitment to join as part of its World Trade Organization (WTO) accession? This is puzzling given the GPA’s estimated market coverage of $1.7 trillion annually, and China’s government procurement market estimated at over $280 billion annually. On the domestic front, China has improved its government procurement regime significantly in recent years. On the international front, China tabled a seventh offer in October 2019, after a period of inaction since its last revised offer at the end of 2014. In this article, we analyze the factors that led to the stalemate in the negotiations, and the consequent five-year gap between China’s sixth and the seventh offers. We discuss a number of problematic issues for various parties, some relevant to any state in the process of acceding to the GPA, others, specific to China. We argue that rationalist calculations on the part of China and its trading partners have led to the prolonged negotiations. In a wider context, we suggest that inconclusive negotiations would have troublesome implications for the international economic legal order.

Keywords: international economic law and policy, market access, government/public procurement, WTO Agreement on Government Procurement (GPA), China’s public procurement

Suggested Citation

Harpaz, Marcia Don and Peled, Hadas, The Stalemate in China’s GPA Accession Negotiations—Is There a Way Out? (March 27, 2020). Asian Journal of WTO & International Health Law and Policy, Vol. 15, No. 1, pp. 209-258, March 2020, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3563414

Marcia Don Harpaz (Contact Author)

Hebrew University of Jerusalem ( email )

Mount Scopus
Jerusalem, Jerusalem 91905
Israel

Hadas Peled

Central University of Finance and Economics ( email )

770 Middle Road
Dresden, ME 04342
United States

Do you have negative results from your research you’d like to share?

Paper statistics

Downloads
108
Abstract Views
445
Rank
453,810
PlumX Metrics