【英语中国】中国政府采购比你想的更重要

The debate over how foreign vendors are treated by China's government is more important than many realize, one procurement expert says.

'People usually think of government procurement as a sector out of the way of regular trading relationships,' Stephen Kho, senior counsel at Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld, said in a talk with Josh Gartner of the American Chamber of Commerce in China. 'But with China that's not necessarily the case. China's government procurement market is huge, if you take into account how many state-owned enterprises there are...[and] that it's essentially still a centrally planned, or government-planned economy.'

'You're looking at a big chunk of the China market when you look at government procurement,' he added. 'It's a big deal.'

The Chinese government estimates that its procurement market surpassed $100 billion last year.

Kho and others who have been briefed on the contents of China's newest proposal to join the World Trade Organization's Government Procurement Agreement, submitted earlier this month, say it is an improvement from the first one submitted in 2007, but that negotiations still have a long way to go in addressing other member countries' concerns.

Those include complaints that the thresholds set for minimum contract values under the agreement are too high, and that proposed agreement terms don't cover state-owned enterprises and sub-central government agencies.

'I don't think this offer is going to be even close to the goal line,' Kho said. 'But it is, [by] all accounts, a step in the right direction.'

Also at issue is the speed at which China is revising its procurement-agreement proposals, Kho said. He pointed out that it's been almost 10 years since China joined the WTO, and it has only made two proposals.

'China should be in the process of putting up new offers almost every time that a GPA committee meets again,' he said, adding that he hopes the U.S. and other members 'push China harder now, rather than waiting two more years before another offer comes.'

图ZUMApress.com 中国巨大的市场规模令许多公司对其政府采购非常重视。
一位政府采购专家说，围绕外国供应商受到中国政府怎样待遇的争论比很多人意识到的更加重要。

美国艾金•岗波律师事务所(Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld)资深律师许思义(Stephen Kho)在与中国美国商会(American Chamber of Commerce in China)的加特纳(Josh Gartner)对话时说，人们通常认为政府采购是一个不同于普通贸易关系的领域。不过，对中国来说，并不一定如此。中国的政府采购市场规模庞大，如果你想想中国有多少国有企业，你会发现中国实际上仍然是中央计划经济，或政府计划经济。

他还说，当你考察政府采购时，你是在考察中国市场的很大一块。这非常重要。

中国政府估计，去年中国的政府采购市场规模超过了1,000亿美元。

中国本月早些时候递交了加入世界贸易组织(WTO)政府采购协议(Government Procurement Agreement)的最新提议。许思义等得到提议内容介绍的人说，新的提议比2007年递交的第一份提议有所改进，不过仍需要进行大量的谈判，以便消除其他成员国的担忧。

其他成员国的抱怨包括，提议中规定的最低合同额过高，提议内容不包括国有企业和各级地方政府机构。

许思义说，我认为这个提议远没有达到目标，不过据大家说，这是朝着正确方向迈出了一步。

许思义说，还有个问题是中国修改加入政府采购协议的提议的速度。他指出，自中国加入WTO以来，已经过去了几乎10年，而中国仅仅递交过两次提议。

他说，中国应该在政府采购委员会每次召开会议的时候都递交新的提议。他还说，他希望美国和其他成员国能够加大力度敦促中国，而不是再等上两年让中国递交新的提议。