Free Trade Area of the Americas - FTAA

español français

 
Ministerial
Declarations
Trade Negotiations
Committee
Negotiating
Groups
Special
Committees
Business
Facilitation
Civil
Society
Trade&Tariff
Database
Hemispheric
Cooperation
Program

Home Countries Sitemap A-Z list Governmental Contact Points

 
 

Public
FTAA.soc/civ/76
May 23, 2003

Original: English

FTAA - COMMITTEE OF GOVERNMENT REPRESENTATIVES ON THE PARTICIPATION OF
CIVIL SOCIETY

CONTRIBUTION IN RESPONSE TO THE OPEN AND ONGOING INVITATION

Name(s) John Murphy, Vice President, Western Hemisphere, U.S. Chamber of Commerce, and Executive Vice President, Association of American Chambers of Commerce in Latin America (AACCLA)

Mark Smith, Executive Vice President, U.S. Section of the Brazil-U.S. Business Council
Organization(s) U.S. Chamber of Commerce
Association of American Chambers of Commerce in Latin America
U.S. Section of the Brazil-U.S. Business Council
Country United States of America

U.S. Chamber of Commerce
Association of American Chambers of Commerce in Latin America
U.S. Section of the Brazil-U.S. Business Council

Recommendations for the Government Procurement Negotiating Group
Executive Summary
 

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the Association of American Chambers of Commerce in Latin America (AACCLA), and the U.S. Section of the Brazil-U.S. Business Council welcome this opportunity to present our views on the emerging Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA). We strongly support free trade in the hemisphere, and we have previously submitted recommendations to the Committee of Government Representatives on the Participation of Civil Society and to the previous seven meetings of the Americas Business Forum giving our perspective on how the agreement should be framed.

The FTAA should remove domestic preferences and requirements in government procurement with limited exceptions (e.g., for sensitive sectors and national security), because such preferences reduce the ability of governments to make the most efficient use of fiscal resources. Provisions of the agreement should also address issues of transparency, openness, and due process in government procurement. Furthermore, the FTAA agreement should include rules that ensure non-discriminatory treatment for suppliers of goods and services from any FTAA bidding on government procurement contracts in any other member country. We would in closing like to underscore the importance of a given number of recommendations that were endorsed during the government procurement negotiation workshop at the VI Americas Business Forum in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
 

U.S. Chamber of Commerce
Association of American Chambers of Commerce in Latin America
U.S. Section of the Brazil-U.S. Business Council

Recommendations for the Government Procurement Negotiating Group
 

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the Association of American Chambers of Commerce in Latin America (AACCLA), and the U.S. Section of the Brazil-U.S. Business Council welcome this opportunity to present our views on the emerging Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA). We strongly support free trade in the hemisphere, and we have previously submitted recommendations to the Committee of Government Representatives on the Participation of Civil Society and to the previous seven meetings of the Americas Business Forum giving our perspective on how the agreement should be framed.

Specifically we recommend that the governments in the hemisphere agree during the Quito FTAA Ministerial to take the following actions to build a strong foundation for the final FTAA Agreement, including endorsing the following measures:

  • The FTAA Agreement should include rules to ensure non-discriminatory treatment for suppliers of goods and services from any FTAA country bidding on government procurement contracts in any other member country.
    The FTAA Agreement should prohibit of the use of offsets in the qualification of suppliers, the evaluation of tenders and the award of contracts.

  • The FTAA Agreement should require that tendering procedures be transparent, open and competitive. In addition, it should include clear and predictable rules for choosing different procurement methods and flexibility for government purchasers to take full advantage of electronic communications and emerging technologies.

  • The FTAA Agreement should require advance public notice of procurement opportunities with enough information to allow suppliers to assess their interest in participating.

  • The FTAA Agreement should include rules to limit qualification requirements to factors essential to determining the suppliers’ ability to fulfill the terms of the contract.

  • The FTAA Agreement should include rules to ensure that tender documentation provides clear and complete descriptions of the specifications and other requirements for the contract, as well as the criteria used to evaluate tenders.

  • The FTAA Agreement should include rules to ensure that contracts are awarded to the supplier whose tender best fulfills the requirements set out in the tender documents. Contracts should not be awarded to suppliers that do not meet the essential requirements in the tender document.

  • The FTAA Agreement should require that government procurement entities promptly inform all suppliers that submitted tenders of the contract award decision, as well as disseminate this information in an electronic or paper medium widely accessible to the public.

  • The FTAA governments should provide timely and effective procedures allowing suppliers to challenge alleged breaches of the FTAA government procurement chapter and provide for prompt interim measures to preserve the commercial opportunity offered by the covered contract.

  • We would like to express our support for the recommendations to increase transparency measures by requiring the publication of laws, regulations, judicial decisions and other measures specifically governing government procurement as outlined by the 2001 government procurement negotiation workshop at the VI Americas Business Forum. Additionally, we would like to affirm the necessity for objective criteria and awards based on pre-established criteria, also set fourth by the negotiating group in 2001. We believe that there are additional measures that should be addressed however, including:

    • 1) Adequate and timely notice of procurement opportunities;
    2) Predictable rules for use of sole source tendering;
    3) Neutral standards;
    4) Public bid opening;
    5) Advising bidders on contract award decisions; and
    6) Independent dispute settlement and bid protest procedures, including arbitration.
     

  • The FTAA countries should make available via the Internet information on government procurement, encompassing: specification, tenders, evaluation criteria, standards, and regulations. The FTAA countries should also establish appropriate access that lists and links the government procurement sites of each country. These would lead to development of a comprehensive database detailing procurement activity.

    • We would like to underscore the importance of - and reiterate our support for - the following recommendations, all of which were endorsed during the government procurement negotiation workshop at the VI Americas Business Forum in Buenos Aires, Argentina:

  • We support the recommendation established during the government procurement negotiation workshop at the 2001 VI Americas Business Forum that states that the FTAA countries “will agree to grant national and most-favored nation treatment to goods, services construction and suppliers from Member countries”.

  • We support the recommendation established during the government procurement negotiation workshop at the 2001 VI Americas Business Forum whereby the FTAA countries will lend consideration to the use of the “model” procurement laws developed by UNCITRAL or similar governmental bodies.

  • We support the recommendation established during the government procurement negotiation workshop at the 2001 VI Americas Business Forum that eliminates the requirement for “consularization” of documentation and similar requirements for bid submissions to government entities.

    •  
    countries sitemap a-z list governmental contact points