Meeting of the CETA Committee on Government Procurement – December 14th, 2023 (by videoconference)

Joint report

The sixth meeting of the CETA Committee on Government Procurement took place on December 14th, 2023 in the form of a videoconference. Participants included representatives from Global Affairs Canada (Government of Canada), the European Commission, the Delegation of the European Union to Canada, the Mission of Canada to the EU, Public Services and Procurement Canada and the Treasury Board Secretariat. Representatives from several provinces and territories of Canada were also present.

Canada provided an update of its single point of access, CanadaBuys, and gave a demonstration of its federal registration process. The EU presented an update of its “Access2Markets” tool, which allows suppliers to find out whether given procurement is covered by certain EU international trade agreements.

The EU updated Canada on the state of play of the International Procurement Instrument as well as the procurement elements of the Foreign Subsidies Regulation, the European Critical Raw Materials Act and the EU’s draft cybersecurity certification scheme for cloud services.

The Parties had a detailed discussion on the collection and exchange of statistics on CETA-covered contracts that have been awarded to Canadian and European suppliers. Canada reiterated its challenges related to collecting data on the origin of suppliers.

The Parties also exchanged views on the U.S. Build America Buy America Act and Canada provided an overview of its Budget commitment to implement reciprocal procurement policies.

In terms of next steps, the Committee on GP will report to the CETA Joint Committee on its key accomplishments in February, 2024.