The International Procurement System: Liberaization and Protectionism

This book provides a multifaceted analysis of the one of the more elusive spheres in the international trade arena: government procurement. In opening their procurement markets to international actors, governments must balance the competing forces of liberalization and protectionism. Liberalization strives to open foreign procurement markets. Protectionism moves in the opposite direction and aims to protect domestic markets from foreign competition.

This book strips away the complexity of the international procurement system and explains its building blocks - the basic elements that have been used to balance liberalization and protectionism. These elements include foundational agreements, key players, challenges, and prospects for expansion. The book examines:

• Why government procurement remains outside the multilateral agreements under the World Trade Organization.
• How countries willing to open their procurement markets in exchange for reciprocal access to their trading partners’ procurement pursued their aims through plurilateral procurement agreements, notably the WTO Government Procurement Agreement.
• Why plurilateral agreements have had difficulty attracting developing countries.
• How the United States balanced opening foreign procurement markets and compliance with a myriad of ‘Buy American’ requirements mandated by Congress.
• How the United States balance of liberalization and protectionism began to tilt inward under the Trump presidency and continued under the Biden administration.
• How the United States sought to open Japanese government procurement with a series of one-sided agreements.
• How the European Union’s ambitious trade negotiating agenda has outpaced that of the United States.
• How the European Union’s insistence on extensive procurement commitments in its agreements has contributed to the growth and stability of the international procurement system.
• How the Comprehensive and Progressive Trans-Pacific Partnership’s (CPTPP) incorporation of developing countries with special measures provides a model for other agreements.
• Why China remains outside of international procurement disciplines and the resulting ramifications.
• Whether the development of unilateral measures could undermine the international procurement system.

Overall, the book comprehensively examines the current state of the international procurement system – its strengths and its weaknesses - and suggests how this system may develop in the future.

Jean Heilman Grier has more than 35 years of experience in international trade, including in the development of the international procurement system. In the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR), she served as the U.S. negotiator for the World Trade Organization's Government Procurement Agreement and played a leading role in its 2012 revision. She also negotiated the government procurement chapters in numerous free trade agreements (FTAs) with countries in Asia, Central America, South America, and the Middle East. Prior to joining USTR, Ms. Grier served as Senior Counsel for Trade Agreements at the U.S. Department of Commerce where she engaged in a broad range of international trade issues. She was a Fulbright Scholar at Tohoku University in Sendai, Japan where she conducted research on Japanese administrative law. She has a J.D. from the University of Minnesota and an LL.M. from the University of Washington. She is a member of the District of Colombia Bar. Currently, she is the Trade Principal with Djaghe, LLC., where she advises businesses, organizations, and governments on international procurement and trade issues. Ms. Grier is the author of numerous publications on international procurement and other international trade topics. Since 2013, she has written the blog, Perspectives on Trade.