Brussels, 31/01/2012 (Agence Europe) - The European Commission has pledged that, this spring, it will retaliate against Chinese protectionism in public procurement.
The departments under Commissioner Karel De Gucht (Trade) and Commissioner Michel Barnier (Internal Market) have been working for over a year now on a legislative draft aimed at restricting access to EU public procurement markets for third country operators that partially block access to their own market, such as China, whose public procurement contracts can reach $1,000 billion annually. “My colleague Michel Barnier and I are preparing a draft law on public markets so that we can respond if the Chinese continue to deny European companies access to certain segments of the market”, De Gucht confirmed, reported in the German magazine Focus on 30 January. The legislation being prepared by the European Commission aims to clarify the rules for access to the European public procurement market. It would also strengthen the EU's leverage in international trade talks with a view to gaining increased access by European tenders submitted to third country public procurement markets. The draft law may be ready in March.
The Commission, which is the main drafter of the new WTO agreement on government procurement (GPA), finalised at the end of 2011, makes China's accession to the GPA a priority (see EUROPE 10533). (EH/transl.jl)