Can Developing Countries Benefit from Negotiations on Transparency in Government Procurement in the Doha Round?

It is important to appreciate how large the world's government procurement markets are. Although precise estimates are hard to come by, a recent analysis by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) indicates that total central government expenditures of its members, excluding military spending and the compensation of state employees, was just under $2 trillion in 1998.1 The comparable figure for 106 non-OECD members, which account for 90% of the developing world's national incomes, was just under $0.3 trillion. The latter is still a sizeable sum as it equals six times the total annual multilateral and bilateral aid currently received by developing economies. Moreover, prior studies have estimated that local and provincial governments tend to spend approximately half this amount on goods and services, bringing the size of the world's procurement market to well over $3 trillion.