【英语中国】中国递交加入WTO政府采购协议的新提议

China offered to increase foreign companies' access to its government purchases as it seeks to overcome international complaints that it discriminates against foreign vendors, but foreign analysts said the move still may not go far enough toward easing their concerns.

The offer was presented in the form of a new proposal for membership in the World Trade Organization's Agreement on Government Procurement, which requires nondiscriminatory access to government purchases.

The new proposal, which makes revisions to China's first proposal in 2007, comes amid intense criticism of China's government by foreign companies and governments for new rules governing access to its massive government-procurement market. Chinese officials estimate that such procurement contracts exceeded $100 billion in 2009.

China had promised upon its accession into the World Trade Organization in 2001 that it would initiate a bid to join the GPA, but the U.S. and other WTO members rejected its first proposal, submitted at the end of 2007. Those parties have been pushing regulators to submit a revised one since, and China agreed in May at the U.S.-China Strategic and Economic Dialogue to do so by this month.

The GPA is an agreement among more than a dozen parties, including the U.S. and European Union, and more than 20 observers, several of which, like China, are in the midst of negotiations to join the agreement.

The contents of the new proposal haven't been made public, and Yao didn't provide details. People who have seen copies of the new proposal or been briefed on its contents say it addressed a number of complaints about the 2007 proposal. The new version reduces a requested transition period for implementing the agreement to five years from 15 years, for example, and it adds 15 more central-government agencies whose purchases are covered by the agreement, said a person who saw the proposal.

But foreign business representatives say the proposal still appears to fall far short of their requirements on several accounts. State-owned enterprises--which include many of China's biggest companies--and agencies under provincial or local governments aren't covered by the new proposal, even though they make up a significant portion of government spending in China. And China's proposed value thresholds for contracts that would fall under the GPA are still higher than the thresholds of other members, they say.

Without the coverage of state enterprises and lower-level agencies 'no one will be willing to accept China's accession into the GPA,' said Stephen Kho, senior counsel at Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP in Washington. 'Having a better offer than before will help assuage some concerns, but that won't be enough.'

Yao said China hopes other members will take into account that China is still a developing economy. He said Chinese companies currently 'face a bottleneck in market opportunities' in the U.S., Europe and other overseas markets because China's lack of membership means its companies aren't eligible for the benefits of the agreement.

He added that the new proposal 'got positive comments from relevant parties in [GPA] negotiations,' and that further negotiations would be conducted.

Deputy U.S. Trade Representative Demetrios Marantis said July 15 that the U.S. was reviewing China's proposal. A USTR spokeswoman couldn't immediately be reached for comment Tuesday.

Christian Murck, president of the American Chamber of Commerce in China, said the new proposal is 'an improvement on the prior offer, but there will undoubtedly be further negotiation before we get to a final offer that will be widely accepted by the WTO and members of the GPA.'

中国提出加大外国公司参与中国政府采购的途径，努力克服国际上有关中国歧视外国供应商的怨言，不过外国分析人士说，此举可能仍不足以缓解他们的担忧。

上述提议是以加入世界贸易组织(WTO)政府采购协议(Agreement on Government Procurement)的新提议的形式作出的。政府采购协议要求对政府采购提供一视同仁的参与途径。

新提议对2007年中国的首次提议进行了修改，此次提出之际正值外国公司和政府强烈批评中国政府管理大规模政府采购市场准入的新规定之际。中国官员估计，2009年政府采购合同额超过了1,000亿美元。

2001年中国加入WTO时，曾承诺将启动加入政府采购协议的提议，不过美国和其他WTO成员国拒绝了中国于2007年底递交的第一份提议。此后，美国和其他WTO成员国就一直敦促监管机构递交一份修改后的提议，5月份中国在中美战略与经济对话(U.S.-China Strategic and Economic Dialogue)上同意在本月前递交新的提议。

政府采购协议是由包括美国和欧盟在内的十多个缔约方以及20多个观察团达成的一项协议。包括中国在内的多个观察团目前正在加入该协议的谈判过程中。

新的提议内容尚未公开，中国商务部发言人姚坚没有提供细节。曾看到新提议复印件或得到其内容介绍的人说，提议解决了对2007年第一份提议的若干不满。一位看过提议的人士说，举例来讲，新的版本把中国提出的实施协议的过度期从15年缩短到了5年，并增加了15个采购项目涵盖在协议中的中央政府机构。

但外国企业代表说，这一提议在几个事项上似乎离他们的要求还很远。包括许多中国最大公司在内的国营企业和省级或地方政府机构不包括在新提议里，尽管它们在中国政府采购中占很大份额。另外中国基于《政府采购协议》拟定的合同价值门槛要高于其他成员国设定的门槛。

美国艾金•岗波律师事务所(Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP)驻华盛顿资深律师许思义表示，如果不涵盖国营企业和较低等级的机构，那么没人希望接纳中国加入《政府采购协议》，虽然出价比以前稍好，可以缓和一些忧虑，但还是不够。

姚坚说，中国希望其他成员国考虑一下中国仍是发展中国家，中国企业目前在美国、欧洲及其他海外市场面临着市场机会的瓶颈，由于中国缺乏成员国身份，这意味着中国企业没有资格获得该协议的好处。

他补充说，新提议在《政府采购协议》磋商中得到相关方的正面评价，还要进行更多磋商。

美国贸易副代表马兰提斯（Demetrios Marantis）7月15日表示，美国正在审查中国的提议。周二不能立即联系到美国贸易代表办公室（USTR）一位女发言人进行评论。

中国美国商会（American Chamber of Commerce in China）会长孟克文（Christian Murck）表示，新的提议较以前出价有所改善，但毫无疑问的是，在我们得到世界贸易组织和《政府采购协议》成员国广泛接纳的最终出价前，还要进行进一步磋商。