This paper explains the Government Procurement Agreement and examines trade barriers in developed economies such as the U.S, Japan and EC, suggesting some strategies to take countermeasures.
This paper is organized as follows. Section II examines the background and current status of the Government Procurement Agreement. Section III analyzes the trade barriers of the U.S. such as its preferential purchase system and discriminatory procurement system. Section IV analyzes the trade barriers of Japan such as the dispersed procurement system and abuse of exclusive bids. Section V analyzes the trade barriers of the EC, including its preferential purchase system and procurement directions, and trade barriers of the EC member nations. Summary and policy implications are provided in Section VI.