Inside US Trade has been reporting on a U.S. request to modify its GPA commitments so as to exclude certain medical products. Back in December 2020, there was this: "The U.S. notified the World Trade Organization last week that it intends to remove certain essential medicines and 'critical inputs' from coverage under the Government Procurement Agreement in accordance with an August executive order mandating that such products be made in the U.S."
Then in January of this year, IUST reported on objections from other Members: "The European Union and Switzerland have formally objected to the United States’ proposed modification of its government procurement coverage to exclude essential medicines, arguing the U.S. has not accounted for the 'likely consequences of the change' for other members."
In February, there were more details on the U.S. notification: "The critical medicines the U.S. wants removed from its Government Procurement Agreement coverage at the World Trade Organization totaled $393 million, or 4.5 percent, in covered federal medical procurement as of 2014, a communication from the U.S. said this week."
And then a few days ago, IUST reported that this issue would go to arbitration:
Now, eight WTO members – the European Union, Switzerland, Canada, Japan, Australia, Israel, Korea and the United Kingdom – are referring their objections to arbitration after bilateral consultations with the U.S. in February and March failed to resolve the objections, the countries said this week in notifications obtained by Inside U.S. Trade.
I immediately went to the WTO's Documents Online to see the objections, but it seems that documents GPA/ARB/USA/1 - GPA/ARB/USA/1/Add. 7 are all restricted. That surprised me, but maybe it shouldn't have. The Procedures for the Circulation and Derestriction of WTO Documents say this:
documents relating to modification or renegotiation of concessions or to specific commitments pursuant to Article XXVIII of the GATT 1994 or Article XXI of the GATS respectively shall be restricted and automatically derestricted upon certification of such changes in the schedules;
I'm not sure exactly how to read this. Does it apply only to Article XXVIII of the GATT 1994 and Article XXI of the GATS? Or does it apply to "modification or renegotiation of concessions" more broadly? Is there some additional document that indicates that these rules apply to GPA modifications under Article XIX? (The GPA arbitration procedures are here). Based on what Documents Online is showing at the moment, it seems that these documents may not be public until the end of the process, which is a shame for transparency purposes.
