@wto Today's GPA 'agreement in principle' is a huge improvement from a month ago & indicates that the UK was successful in its bilateral efforts to address concerns of GPA members -- such as Moldova (bloom.bg/2EENKTp) -- who objected to the U.K.'s market access offer in October
@wto Government Procurement Agreement members said their previous concerns have been addressed and they could now support an 'agreement in principle' on the U.K.'s market access offer to rejoin the GPA.
@wto But the U.K. isn't out of the woods yet.
@wto The US and others said they could not support consensus on a draft decision to invite the UK into the GPA until the EU and the UK clarify whether and to what extent and in what terms the draft decision on the UK's GPA accession should reference the Brexit withdrawal agreement.
@wto The EU plans to circulate proposed text to address that matter next week and GPA members will decide whether it passes muster at a meeting tentatively scheduled to take place on Dec. 14 in Geneva.
@wto Then GPA members will take that text to their capitals where their governments will make a political decision as to whether the will agree to allow the U.K. to rejoin the GPA or not on the terms provided to them.
That decision will likely happen in January or February.
That decision will likely happen in January or February.
@wto Needless to say GPA parties will be paying close attention to the legislative proceedings in London to see whether Theresa May succeeds in her effort to pass the withdrawal agreement though Parliament next month.
@wto If Parliament approves May's plan for a transitional period to withdraw from the EU it would provide GPA parties with more time to approve the UK's GPA offer since Britain would would continue to be bound by its current GPA commitments until the transition ends on Dec. 31, 2020.
@wto If May fails, however, and the U.K. heads towards a hard exit from the EU after March 29, it would add greater urgency to the U.K.'s effort to quickly rejoin the GPA.
@wto END
