The development and future of the market access negotiation of the agreement on government procurement under the WTO

WTO政府採購協定（Agreement on Government Procurement, GPA）之談判進展深受各界關注，依據GPA第24條第7項(b)(c)款之規定，各會員自1997年展開內建談判，其中包括協定文字之修正與市場開放談判兩大層面。本文以市場開放談判為主要觀察面向，透過談判資料之整理，發現自2004年談判正式展開以來，會員之間針對談判定位與方向始終難以凝聚共識，使整體談判停滯不前；此外，本文以美國與加拿大為個案，分析其在談判過程提出之要求與回應清單，發現其新增適用GPA之內容相當有限，佐證談判停滯之現象。本文認為談判裹足不前的原因可能有三方面，分別是政府採購協定之談判利益與其他WTO協定之優惠無法互換、GPA會員未開放足夠誘因之新市場、各會員普遍受到保護產業政策與政治因素之掣肘。 今（2010）年2月份，美國與加拿大雙方簽署政府採購協定，互惠開放部分政府採購市場納入協定適用範圍內，使WTO秘書長與許多會員期盼其對整體談判動能有所助益。本文檢視該協定後認為其對GPA市場開放談判可能無法產生實質幫助，不過其所彰顯之指標性意義卻不容忽視。市場開放談判以達成多邊化為目標之一，然而面對談判之阻礙，本文最後提出鼓勵會員重行推動透明化協定之談判，或許對於達成GPA的多邊化仍有其價值。The “built in” negotiation of the Agreement on Government Procurement (GPA), pursuant to Article XXIV:7 (b) & (c) of the GPA, includes two folds of negotiations: amendment of the text of the GPA and market access negotiation/coverage negotiation. This thesis mainly observes market access negotiation and concludes from relevant material that it is stalled due to absent consensus among members of the GPA on goals and directions of the negotiation. The thesis further demonstrates the impasse of the negotiation from limited expansion of coverage committed by the United States of America and Canada under the GPA. The thesis suggests three reasons behind the stalled market access negotiation: the coverage committed under the GPA cannot exchange for concessions under other WTO agreements; no substantial coverage has been expanded by existing members to motivate overall expansion of the GPA; the burden of protective industry policies and associated political pressures within each members of the GPA. The Unites States and Canada has concluded an Agreement on Government Procurement earlier this year (2010) in which it allows further expansion of coverage under the GPA on a reciprocal basis. After the conclusion of such Agreement, several members of the GPA and the Director-General of the WTO welcomed such development and expected new momentum of the negotiation shall be aroused. However, in view of the coverage committed in the Agreement, the thesis suggests it could be of little help to the negotiation in a substantial way, but the emblematic effect it might have on other members of the GPA is still worth noticing. In light of the current situation, the thesis finally provides that there might be merit to encourage members of the GPA to re-negotiate Transparency Agreement on Government Procurement in order to multilateralize the GPA