Australia will become the newest member of the World Trade Organization (WTO) plurilateral Government Procurement Agreement (GPA). On October 17, 2018, parties to the GPA unanimously approved a decision to welcome Australia as the 48th WTO member to be covered by the GPA.

The GPA is a plurilateral agreement that strives to ensure open, fair and transparent conditions of competition in the government procurement markets. It aims to provide legal guarantees of non-discrimination for the products, services or suppliers of GPA parties in procurement covered by the Agreement.

The Agreement is open to all WTO members, and it is currently binding on the 47 members to the Agreement (19 parties, including the United States, and the EU and its 28 member states). The GPA is composed of two main parts: the text of the Agreement and the coverage schedules. The Agreement applies only to those procurement activities that are carried out by covered entities that are purchasing services or goods of a value exceeding specified thresholds.

Australia will become a member after it submits its Instrument of Accession to the WTO’s Director General. With an estimated overall government procurement market worth USD $78 billion, Australia will add significantly to the current government procurement covered by the other 47 members to the Agreement, which is currently approximately USD $1.7 trillion.

Australia initiated negotiations to join the Agreement three years ago, in September of 2015. At the meeting, the GPA also reviewed the accession bids of China, the Kyrgyz Republic, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, the Russian Federation and Tajikistan. Other countries with currently pending accession negotiations include Albania, Georgia, Jordan and Oman. See a full list of the GPA members and observers here.

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