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A longstanding objective of U.S. trade policy has been to open
opportunities for U.S. suppliers to compete on a level playing field for foreign government contracts.
The first major breakthrough in this area was the 1979 conclusion of the Government Procurement
Agreement (GPA), followed by the tenfold expansion of that Agreement during the Uruguay Round negotiations
that led to the creation of the World Trade Organization (WTO). The WTO estimates that, under the
GPA, the United States and the 26 other GPA Parties provide their suppliers with
non-discriminatory access to government tendering procedures worth more that $300 billion
annually. The “Title VII” process, initially established under Title VII of
the Omnibus Trade and Competitiveness Act of 1988 (“Title VII”), as amended, provides a vehicle for
identifying priorities for international negotiations that may address discriminatory foreign government
procurement practices and for monitoring and enforcing existing international
agreements.
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