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“In the on-going talks between the EU and MERCOSUR for the resolution
of an Association Agreement, the European Commission has tabled its offer
on public procurement. The intention of this move was to inject dynamism to
the last round of negotiations held in Asunción (Paraguay) between 23 and
27 of June 2003. Government procurement was not discussed in Asuncion,
contrary to the agreed work program, given the absence of a MERCOSUR
offer. EU Trade Commissioner Pascal Lamy said: “We have made ambitious
proposals to open our market for trade in goods and in services and to create
rules on investments, to which we now add government procurement. This is
a clear a sign of our commitment to move full steam ahead. I hope MERCO-
SUR tables its proposal soon, so that we may inject new dynamism into the
negotiations.”
The EU’s offer on government procurement is the largest offer ever proposed
in a bilateral trade negotiation. It is a WTO + proposal in that it goes beyond
the EU’s engagements under the WTO Agreement on Government Procurement.
This offer would give MERCOSUR companies access to the EU’s lucrative
government procurement market worth 200 billion Euros or about 2,4 % of
the EU GDP.
The offer would allow MERCOSUR companies to participate in EU government
procurement markets for goods, services and construction at preferential
conditions over those applied by the EU to other WTO members.” 325
Everything will function exclusively according to the rules of the market; the only
criteria will be price and efficiency. The corporations in the industrial countries are
very well prepared for this. Lastly it is about maintaining the brutally high profit rates
of corporations – especially European ones. And this makes the restless commitment
of the European Commission to the global deregulation of national markets by
regulation of international trade and investment regimes extremely understandable.
325 http://europa.eu.int/comm/external_relations/mercosur/intro/ip03_1014.htm.
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