[CTC] Friends of the Earth video: "Peril in the Pacific: No to the TPP"

[Arthur Stamoulis]

Inside U.S. Trade
Daily News
In TPP, Canada Seeks Access To Certain Sub-federal Procurement Deals
Posted: March 6, 2013

SINGAPORE – Canada has tabled a proposal here on government  
procurement in the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) talks that aims to  
ensure that projects carried out by sub-federal entities with money  
provided by the central government will be open to competition from  
firms within TPP countries, a U.S. trade official said in an interview  
with Inside U.S. Trade today (March 6).

Canadian industry groups like the Canadian Manufacturers and Exporters  
(CME) are advocating for inclusion of  such language. These groups  
want to avoid repeating a situation that arose in the 2009 U.S.  
stimulus bill, which excluded Canadian companies from participating in  
some sub-federal U.S. procurements paid for with federal stimulus  
money. Canadian industry groups highlighted this as a potential TPP  
demand in TPP last October (Inside U.S. Trade, Oct. 12).

Last year, the U.S. proposed that TPP countries delay any discussion  
on seeking sub-federal procurement commitments and instead focus on  
central government entities. Asked whether the other TPP countries had  
agreed to that request, the U.S. trade official did not answer  
directly, but pointed out that some countries do not even have sub- 
federal entities. That is true for countries like Singapore.

The official stressed that the main outcome that the U.S. is seeking  
on government procurement is to obtain reciprocal access to TPP  
countries' markets. “We're building up offers that we think are  
reciprocal,” the official said.

In a presentation to negotiators here today, Emergency Committee for  
American Trade President Cal Cohen called on the U.S. to support these  
disciplines being advocated by Canadian industry. “The [principle] of  
attaching procurement obligations to funds made available to sub- 
federal entities is sound, and this idea merits serious consideration  
in these negotiations – including by the United States,” Cohen said in  
his prepared remarks.