Australia opens its public procurement to international competition

Australia will join the World Trade Organization Agreement on Government Procurement (GPA). Accession to the Agreement will give European businesses better access to Australia’s public procurement market and improve legal certainty.

The WTO Committee on Government Procurement approved the accession in its meeting on 17 October 2018. Australia’s accession will enter into force 30 days after the country deposits its instrument of accession to the WTO. This will most likely take place in 2019.

In Finland’s view, Australia’s accession to the GPA is an important and positive development in the WTO’s operations.

Australia will offer access to the procurement activities of its federal administration, including ministries. Access to regional and local procurement markets, however, will be subject to some restrictions. The offer is broader in scope than the commitments made by Australia in its other free trade agreements, such as the Trans-Pacific Partnership.

Because not all of the concerns of the EU were taken into account in Australia’s final offer, the EU’s WTO commitments will restrict Australia’s access to procurement activities in the EU territory, for instance at the regional and local level. This is common practice in negotiations concerning government procurement. 

The ongoing free trade negotiations are expected to give the EU and Australia an opportunity to improve access to each other’s markets.

The GPA is a plurilateral agreement between a number of WTO members. The aim of the Agreement is to mutually open government procurement markets among its parties. The Agreement currently has 47 parties: Armenia, Aruba, Canada, Chinese Taipei, the European Union and its 28 Member States, Hong Kong (China), Iceland, Israel, Japan, Liechtenstein, Moldova, Montenegro, New Zealand, Norway, Singapore, South Korea, Switzerland, Ukraine and the United States.

Inquiries: Mary-Anne Nojonen, Commercial Counsellor, tel. +358 295 351 494, mary-anne.nojonen@formin.fi