Trade Agreements: World Trade Organization – Agreement on Government Procurement - Revised

Contracting Policy Notice: 2014 - 2

Date: April 17 2014

To: Functional Heads, Finance and Administration of all Departments and Agencies

Subject: World Trade Organization – Agreement on Government Procurement - Revised

The purpose of this Contracting Policy Notice (CPN) is to advise departments and agencies that the 1994 World Trade Organization – Agreement on Government Procurement (GPA) has been substantially renegotiated. The revised version (GPA-R) came into force for Canada on April 6, 2014.

Some parties to the Agreement—Armenia, Aruba, the Republic of Korea and Switzerland—have not yet completed their ratification process; however, because two thirds of the parties have completed this process, the GPA-R is in effect for Canada. Canada is among the two thirds that have completed the ratification process.

The list of federal departments and agencies subject to the GPA-R remains the same as under the 1994 GPA, albeit with some name changes resulting from government reorganizations since then. No goods, services or construction services have been added to Canada’s lists of items subject to the Agreement. The thresholds are as published in CPN 2013-5.

Departments and agencies are strongly advised to familiarize themselves with the procedural obligations found in the text of the GPA-R. Procedural obligations cover, for example, the posting periods for notices of intended procurement, the information that must be included in notices, the content of tender documentation, and the circumstances for the use of limited tendering.

The text of the GPA-R starts at page 7 of the Protocol Amending the Agreement on Government Procurement, GPA/113, dated April 2, 2012.

Notable revisions, which do not affect departments and agencies, are that some federal Crown corporations and all of the provinces and territories have been brought under coverage of GPA-R. The covered Crown corporations are as follows:

1. Canada Post Corporation
2. Canadian Museum of Civilization
3. Canadian Museum of Nature
4. Canadian Tourism Commission
5. Defence Construction (1951) Ltd.
6. National Capital Commission
7. National Gallery of Canada
8. National Museum of Science and Technology
9. Royal Canadian Mint
10. Via Rail Inc.

References

World Trade Organization: Government Procurement

Enquiries

For matters of content and interpretation with respect to the GPA-R, please contact Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development Canada:

Telephone:
1-800-267-8376 (toll-free in Canada)
613-944-4000 (in the National Capital Region and outside Canada)
If you are deaf or hard of hearing, or you have a speech impediment and use a text telephone, you can access the TTY service from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Eastern Time by calling 613-944-9136 (in Canada only).

Fax: 613-996-9709

Email: enqserv@international.gc.ca

Write to:
Enquiries Service (BCI)
Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development Canada
125 Sussex Drive
Ottawa, ON, Canada K1A 0G2

Elisa Mayhew
A/Assistant Comptroller General, Acquired Services and Assets Sector
Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat

Distribution: TB06, TB07, TB21, T22, TB23, T23, T24, T161