TTIP Negotiations and Public Procurement: A Federalist Approach

Abstract

Government procurement is perhaps one of the most under-explored areas in the recent academic literature on transatlantic economic relations and yet it is also one of the most protected economic sectors addressed in the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) negotiations. Even though the EU and the US have undertaken extensive reciprocal procurement commitments under the WTO’s Agreement on Government Procurement, as well as in their respective preferential trade agreements (PTAs), the liberalisation and harmonisation of the transatlantic procurement market could not be more ambiguous or controversial. This paper aims to deepen our understanding of crucial aspects of the current EU–US procurement relationship. To this end, the paper explores the TTIP negotiations as well as similar PTAs and underlines the potential implications in terms of the fragmentation of the international discipline of procurement regulation.