./.WORLD TRADE
ORGANIZATIONGPA/72
23 October 2002
(02-5798)
PROCEDURES FOR THE CIRCULATION AND DERESTRICTION
OF DOCUMENTS OF THE COMMITTEE ON GOVERNMENT PROCUREMENT
Decision of 8 October 2002
The Committee on Government Procurement,
Having regard to  the Decision on Procedures for the Ci rculation and Derestriction of WTO
Documents of 14 May 2002 (WT/L/452) and Artic le XXI of the Agreement on Government
Procurement and Article II:3 of the Marrakesh Ag reement Establishing the World Trade Organization,
Considering  that there is a need to improve the cu rrent Procedures for the Circulation and
Derestriction of documents of the Committee on Gove rnment Procurement and align them with those of
the WTO in WT/L/452,
Emphasizing  the importance of greater transparency in the functioning of the Committee on
Government Procurement,
Decides as follows :
1. All official documents of the Committee on Government Procurement and of any subsidiary
body established by it1 shall be unrestricted.
2. Notwithstanding the provisions of paragraph 1,
(a) any Party may submit a document as restricted, which shall be automatically
derestricted after its first consideration by the relevant body or 60 days after the date
of circulation, whichever is earlier, unless requested otherwise by that Party.2  In the
latter case, the document may remain restricted for further periods of 30 days, subject
to renewed requests by that Party within each 30-day period.  The Secretariat shallremind Parties of such deadlines, and derestrict the document upon receipt of a
written instruction.  Any document may be derestricted at any time during the
restriction period at the request of the Parties concerned.
(b) The Committee and any subsidiary body established by it when requesting a document
to be prepared by the Secretariat shall decide  whether it shall be issued as restricted or
unrestricted.  Such documents which are issued as restricted shall automatically be
derestricted 60 days after the date of circ ulation, unless requested otherwise by a Party.
                                                     
1 For the purposes of this Decision, an official document shall be any document submitted by a Party or
prepared by the Secretariat to be issued in any on e of the following WTO document series:  GPA-series.
2 However, any document that contains only information that is publicly available or information that is
required to be published under the provisions of Article XIX:1 of the Agreement on Government Procurement
shall be unrestricted.GPA/72
Page 2
In the latter case, the document shall remain restricted for one additional period of 30
days after which it shall be derestricted;
(c) minutes of meetings (including records, reports and notes) shall be restricted and shall
be automatically derestricted 45 days after the date of circulation3;
(d) documents relating to rectifications or modifications of Appendices I through IV
pursuant to Article XXIV:6 of the Agreement on Government Procurement shall be
restricted and automatically derestricted upon certification of such changes in the
Appendices;
(e) documents relating to any accession shall be restricted and shall be automatically
derestricted upon the Committee decision on the accession of the WTO Member
concerned.
3. Translation of official GPA documents in all three official WTO languages (English, French
and Spanish) shall be completed expeditiously.  Once translated in all three official WTO languages,
all official GPA documents that are not restricted shall be made available via the WTO web-site to
facilitate their dissemination to the public at large.4
4. The Decision of the Committee on Government Procurement of 19 March 1997 on the
Circulation and Derestriction of the Documents of the Committee on Government Procurement, ascontained in GPA/1/Add.2, shall be abrogated as of the date of adoption of the present decision, but
will remain in effect for documents circulated prior to that date.
5. In the light of the experience gained from the operation of these procedures and changes in
any other relevant procedures under the WTO, the Committee on Government Procurement will, at an
appropriate time, review and if necessary modify the procedures.
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3 It is understood that, normally, minutes (including records, reports and notes) of meetings shall be
circulated within three weeks after a meeting of the Committee and not later than the notice convening thefollowing meeting of the Committee.
4 Notwithstanding paragraph 3, any document that contains information that is publicly available or
information required to be published under Article XIX:1 of the Agreement on Government Procurement shallcontinue to be made available via the WTO web-site immediately in the original WTO language in which it iswritten.