REUTERS
Ukraine is set to join the World Trade Organization's Government Procurement Agreement (GPA) after its accession terms were approved on November 11, according to a posting on the WTO's website.
The WTO's Committee on Government Procurement agreed to invite Ukraine to join the GPA based on the terms set out in a draft decision circulated to Parties on October 9.
Ukraine will formally accede to the GPA 30 days after it has deposited its instrument of accession with the WTO, the posting said.
Maxim Nefyodov, Ukraine's Deputy Minister of Economy and Trade, told the committee that participation in the GPA would help Ukraine strengthen good governance in the area of public procurement, assist in its fight against corruption, and increase the transparency of government procurement practices.
WTO Deputy Director-General Yi Xiaozhun welcomed the decision, noting that it will give Ukrainian suppliers access to a global procurement market estimated at $1.7 trillion annually.
Ukraine applied for GPA accession in February 2011, less than three years after joining the WTO. It submitted its first coverage offer in March 2014.
Forty-five WTO members are currently covered by the GPA: Armenia; Canada; the European Union, with its 28 member states; Hong Kong, China; Iceland; Israel; Japan; Korea; Liechtenstein; Montenegro; the Kingdom of the Netherlands with respect to Aruba; New Zealand; Norway; Singapore; Switzerland; Chinese Taipei; and the United States.
The GPA committee approved the accession terms for Moldova at its previous meeting on September 16.
Accession to the GPA requires, in addition to the existence of GPA-compliant national procurement legislation, the reaching of agreement on the terms of participation by each acceding WTO member. This is achieved through negotiations with the existing parties to the Agreement.
The GPA is a plurilateral agreement within the framework of the WTO, meaning that not all WTO members are parties to the Agreement.
Other WTO members that have started the process of acceding to the GPA are Albania, Australia, China, Georgia, Jordan, the Kyrgyz Republic, Oman and Tajikistan. A further five members — the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Mongolia, the Russian Federation, Saudi Arabia, and Seychelles — have provisions regarding accession to the Agreement in their respective protocols of accession to the WTO.