Brussels, 02/02/2012 (Agence Europe) - The European Commission is promising that, by March, it will give its response to third country protectionism, especially that by China, when public procurement contracts are concerned. The awaited legislative instrument would allow rules to be clarified on access to the European market for public procurement contracts and would give the EU more leverage in international trade talks with a view to gaining greater access for European bids for third country public contracts.
The departments under Trade Commissioner Karel De Gucht and Internal Market Commissioner Michel Barnier have been working for over a year now on draft legislation aimed at restricting access to EU public markets for operators of third countries that partially block access to their own markets, such as China, in which public contracts can amount to $1,000 billion annually. “My colleague, Internal Market Commissioner 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, as reported by the German magazine, Focus, on 30 January. The draft law could be ready in March this year.
The above proposal has caused intense discussion over the past year between Barnier and De Gucht's units in order to strike the right balance in a proposal aimed at restoring an equitable situation of competition while avoiding protectionism and prejudice to trade.
The result of a compromise, the two commissioners' proposal has a three-fold base.
First of all, it aims to give European public contract adjudicators the possibility of treating suppliers from third countries that have signed the agreement on government procurement (AGP) at the WTO or signed up to a free trade agreement with the EU containing a clause on the opening of public markets, differently from suppliers of third countries that have not signed the AGP or are not signatory to a bilateral agreement with the EU containing a public procurement clause, like China. European public authorities may thus reject offers concerning contracts not covered by this kind of commitment.
The proposal also aims to set in place a trade defence mechanism managed by the European Commission in association with member states, allowing part of the European market to be closed in the event of repeated discrimination against European suppliers in third countries.
Finally, the proposal recommends provisions on dealing with “abnormally low” offers in order to combat unfair competition by third country suppliers on the European market.
The proposal is to be examined under co-decision procedure by the European Parliament and the Council. (EH/transl.jl)