Guidance

Minutes of the first Trade Specialised Committee on Public Procurement: 12 October 2021

Published 15 November 2021

This was published under the 2019 to 2022 Johnson Conservative government

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1. Joint Minutes

The first meeting of the Trade Specialised Committee on Public Procurement under the Trade and Cooperation Agreement between the European Union and the United Kingdom took place on 12 October 2021 via videoconference.

Following opening the Parties discussed two agenda points on substance as agreed in the agenda.

1.1 Agenda Item 2 - Update on the latest developments in the EU and the United Kingdom

The Parties discussed their latest legislative and policy developments.

The EU provided the state of play of two major legislative files of importance for levelling the playing field in access to third countries’ and EU’s procurement markets: the International Procurement Instrument and the foreign subsidies instrument.

The UK sought reassurances that these legislative proposals would not lead to any direct or indirect discrimination of UK operators. The EU underlined that any legislative outcome would be fully in line with the EU’s international commitments.

The UK provided an update on the Green Paper - Transforming Public Procurement, Procurement Policy Note 11/20: Reserving below threshold procurements, and Procurement Policy Note 06/21: Taking account of Carbon Reduction Plans in the procurement of major government contracts.

The EU looked for reassurances that the recent policy developments, and in particular the one on Carbon Reduction Plans, are TCA and GPA compliant and expressed its concern that the development may lead to indirect discrimination of EU operators.

The UK stressed its confidence that policy developments discussed were fully compliant with the UK’s international commitments.

1.2 Agenda Item 3 - Implementation issues, including exchange of statistics

The Parties discussed the availability and accessibility of their respective procurement related data with a view to effectively monitor participation of each Party’s operators in the partner’s procurement markets.

Up-to-date information on public procurement in the EU is freely accessible on the Tenders Electronic Daily (TED) and EU Open Data Portal. The available data allows for a breakdown by the origin of the entity awarded the contract.

For the UK, up-to-date information on public procurement covered by the TCA is available from its Find-a-Tender that replaced TED as from 1 January 2021. The functionalities of this portal are similar to the EU portals.

1.3 List of participants of the first Trade Specialised Committee on Public Procurement under the EU-UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement

Attachment 2 - List of participants of the first Trade Specialised Committee on Public Procurement under the EU-UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement

UK Delegation (10 participants)

  • UK Co-chair of the TSC Public Procurement

  • UK Government Officials from the Cabinet Office

  • UK Mission to the European Union Official

EU Delegation (40 participants)

  • EU Co-Chair of the TSC Public Procurement

  • European Commission Officials

  • Delegation of the European Union to the UK Officials

  • Representatives of EU Member States

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