Oversight On Government Procurement Code And Related Agreements

As governments are major buyers of goods and services, foreign companies are keen to be able to participate in procurement opportunities on an equal footing with national firms. This has given rise to the inclusion of procurement disciplines in trade agreements and to internationally-agreed good regulatory practices in this important policy area. The contributions to this book examine how the dynamic mix of bilateral, regional, plurilateral and international norms on government procurement is reflected in purchasing practices at the national level and whether these are leading to convergence in policies and approaches. The countries studied span both advanced, high-income economies and emerging economies. Some are members of the WTO procurement agreement, others are not. Most WTO members have decided not to commit to binding international disciplines on procurement in trade agreements. This book explores whether there has been nonetheless internationalization of good procurement practices, and what current public purchasing processes suggest as regards the value added of signing on to binding rules of the game in this area. The approach taken in in the volume is interdisciplinary.0Contributors include economists, political scientists, legal scholars, and practitioners with a solid understanding of both the extant international disciplines and national government procurement policies. Each chapter assesses the current state of play as regards legislation and procurement practices; the degree to which industrial policy considerations feature in the relevant regulatory frameworks; the existence and use of domestic dispute resolution and review procedures that allow firms to contest the behavior of procuring entities; and the availability of data on procurement processes and outcomes --Back of cover.

Governments spend huge amounts of money buying goods and services from the private sector. How far should their spending power be affected by social policy? Arguments against the practice are often made by economists - on the grounds of inefficiency - and lawyers - on the grounds of free competition and international economic law. Buying Social Justice analyses how governments in developed and developing countries use their contracting power in order to advance social equality and reduce discrimination, and argues that this approach is an entirely legitimate, and efficient means of achieving social justice. The book looks at the different experiences of a range of countries, including the UK, the USA and South Africa. It also examines the impact of international and regional regulation of the international economy, and questions the extent to which the issue of procurement policy should be regulated at the national, European or international levels. The role of EC and WTO law in mediating the tensions between the economic function of procurement and the social uses of procurement is discussed, and the outcomes of controversies concerning the legitimacy of the integration of social values into procurement are analysed. Buying Social Justice argues that European and international legal regulation of procurement has become an important means of accentuating the positive and eliminating the negative in both the social and economic uses of procurement.