ANNUAL REPORT ON DISCRIMINATORY GOVERNMENT PROCUREMENT PRACTICES UNDER TITLE VII OF THE 1988 TRADE ACT Title VII of the 1988 Trade Act requires that the Administration report annually to the Congress not later than April 30 on discriminatory foreign government procurement practices. A Federal Register notice was published on February 9 to solicit public comment regarding instances of discrimination encountered by U.S. companies. The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, Department of Commerce and other interested trade agencies would like to encourage broader trade community participation in the information gathering phase of the Title VII review. All interested parties are invited to provide a description of any discrimination encountered in responding to foreign government procurement opportunities. To be identified under Title VII for purposes of consultations and negotiations, a country must be: (1) a signatory to the GATT Government Procurement Code or WTO Government Procurement Agreement and be in violation; (2) a signatory or non-signatory, maintain a significant pattern or practice of discrimination in the procurement of products or services from the United States, cause identifiable harm to U.S. suppliers and be a significant supplier of products and services to the U.S. Government; (3) a non-signatory, fail to enforce transparent and competitive procurement procedures equivalent to those in the Code and be a significant supplier of products and services to the U.S. Government; or (4) a non-signatory, fail to maintain and enforce effective prohibitions on bribery and other corrupt practices in Government procurement and be a significant supplier of products and services to the U.S. Government. Current signatories to the Agreement other than the United States are: Canada, the member states of the European Union (Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom), Israel, Japan, Korea (implementation 1/1/97) and Switzerland. Identification of specific instances of bias is critical to meeting the ``identifiable harm'' criteria set out in the statute for (2) above. Additionally, the criteria in (3) and (4) concerning transparent procedures and anti-bribery prohibitions will be examined, as it was last year, since they arise from amendments to Title VII contained in the Uruguay Round implementing legislation. Therefore, information in these areas will be particularly important to build a record for use in this and future Title VII reviews. Companies with information to share are requested to mail or fax a written description of the specific practices or discrimination encountered to Elena Bryan, Office of the United States Trade Representative, 600 17th St. NW, Washington, D.C. 20506; Fax (202) 395-5674 by March 1, 1996. Submissions containing proprietary information should be marked ``Business Confidential.'' Each submission should provide, in order, the following general information: (1) The party submitting the information, (2) the foreign country or countries that are the subject of the submission and the government entities whose practices are being identified, and (3) the U.S. products or services affected by the practices or discrimination. Discrimination on non-competitive practices could include notification of procurements without allowing adequate time for response, use of technical specifications to deny foreign suppliers bidding opportunities and use of local sole sourcing where competitive procedures could have been conducted. Thank you for your participation.

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