Potential Accession to the WTO Government Procurement Agreement: A Case-Study on India

Abstract

The World Trade Organization (WTO) Government Procurement Agreement (GPA) is a voluntary plurilateral agreement applicable to WTO members that choose to be Parties to the Agreement. Most developing countries, including India, are not members of the GPA. This case study presents an insight into India’s current procurement framework, evaluates the prospects for, and comments on the principal constraints and challenges to India’s GPA accession. The findings suggest that, though the Indian procurement system is evolving and aims to align the regime with the GPA, there are considerable policy issues, capacity constraints, corruption and transparency failures in procurement practices that will need to be addressed before India can join the WTO GPA.