AGREEMENT ON GOVERNMENT PROCUREMENT

Dispute settlement

The Agreement on Government Procurement (GPA) provides two independent mechanisms for settling procurement-related disputes: “domestic review mechanisms” at the national level; and the WTO dispute settlement mechanism.

Domestic review mechanisms

The GPA 2012 requires, in Article XVIII, that all parties to the Agreement should establish domestic review systems that are timely, effective, independent, transparent and non-discriminatory. These systems permit suppliers to challenge breaches of the GPA and/or the national legislation giving effect to the Agreement. The review body, which may be an administrative authority or a court, must have the authority to implement remedial measures and/or to insure compensation for the loss or damages suffered by a supplier. Rapid interim measures must also be available to preserve a supplier's opportunity to participate in relevant procurement activities, where appropriate.

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WTO dispute settlement mechanism 

Article XX of the GPA 2012 provides that the WTO's Understanding on Rules and Procedures Governing the Settlement of Disputes (the ‘Dispute Settlement Understanding’) also applies to disputes under the GPA. Any GPA party may initiate proceedings against another party in circumstances where it believes the other party to be in violation of its obligations under the Agreement. Three disputes between parties under the GPA have been brought to the WTO.

Disputes initiated under the GPA   Back to top

Search Documents Online
Government procurement documents on dispute settlement use the code GPA/D* (where * takes additional values). These links open a new window: allow a moment for the results to appear.

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> More on Dispute Settlement

  • All Disputes (requests for consultations) involving government procurement (Document code GPA/D*)   > search
      
  • DS73: Japan — Procurement of a Navigation Satellite
    • All documents on this case (Document code GPA/D73/* or WT/DS73/*)   > search
    • Statement in the Committee on Government Procurement providing details of the solution: 18 February 1998 (Document code GPA/M/8)   > search
  • DS88 — DS95: United States — Measures Affecting Government Procurement (Massachusetts State Law prohibiting contracts with firms doing business with or in Myanmar)
    • All documents on case DS88: brought by EC (Document code GPA/D88/* or WT/DS88/*)   > search
    • All documents on case DS95: brought by Japan (Document code GPA/D95/* or WT/DS95/*)   >  search
  • DS163: Korea — Measures affecting Government Procurement (procurement practices of the Korean Airport Construction Authority) 
    • All documents on this case (Document code GPA/D163/* or WT/DS163/*)   > search
    • Panel report adopted: 15 June 2000 (Document code WT/DSB/M/84)   > search

You can perform more sophisticated searches from the Documents Online search facility (opens in new window) by defining multiple search criteria such as document symbol (i.e. code number), full text search or document date.

 

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Disputes initiated under the Tokyo Round Code on Government Procurement

Four GATT disputes from the pre-WTO period, initiated under the Tokyo Round Code on Government Procurement, assessed government-procurement-related issues directly: