On Thursday, November 12, in Geneva, member countries of the Committee on Government Procurement of the World Trade Organization (WTO) approved the accession of Ukraine to the Agreement on government procurement (Agreement on Government Procurement, GPA).
The Ministry of Economic Development and Trade of Ukraine officials emphasize that the GPA Agreement extends the main principle of the WTO – an equal access to markets - to government procurement. Therefore, Ukraine opens access to its public tenders as also the GPA parties open access to their procurement markets. Joining the Agreement means for the Ukrainian companies the opening of the global market for public procurement of the WTO countries, which is estimated at USD 1.7 trillion.
According to specialists of the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade, joining the GPA is a positive signal for foreign investors and a proof that Ukraine adopts best practices and gets the support of leading world countries.
The Ministry expects the Verkhovna Rada to ratify the GPA before the end of 2015.