The journal Trade, Law and Development, ranked as the best law journal in India (2012, 2011) and the tenth best law journal in the field of international trade worldwide (2012), has issued a Call for Submissions for its upcoming Special Issue on Government Procurement. Submissions are due by Feb. 15, 2015.

 The Plurilateral Agreement on Government Procurement (‘GPA’) aims to promote transparency, integrity and competition in the purchase of goods and services by government agencies. Preferential treatment for domestic goods and services are envisaged as trade barriers. Participating governments are also required to put in place domestic procedures by which aggrieved private bidders can challenge procurement decisions and obtain redress in the event of inconsistency with the GPA. However, States have political and economic interests in promoting their own small and medium scale industries. Therefore, the attempt to harmonize these objectives raises issues with reference to market access and the benefits of “good governance” under the GPA. These subjects have not received sufficient analysis from mainstream academia yet. Consequently, existing literature is inadequate to effectively equip policymakers to deal with such issues.

The revised GPA entered into force on April 6, 2014 and enabled parties to realise gains in market access to the tune of billions of dollars annually. This Special Issue, currently scheduled for publication in July, 2015, will provide an ideal platform to deliberate on Government Procurement initiatives at the WTO. Accordingly, the Board of Editors is pleased to invite original and unpublished submissions for the Special Issue on Government Procurement for publication as ‘Articles’, ‘Notes’, ‘Comments’ and ‘Book Reviews’.

Manuscripts may be submitted via e-mail, ExpressO, or the TL&D website. For further information and submission guidelines, please visit the Journal’s website: www.tradelawdevelopment.com. If you have any questions, please contact the editors at editors[at]tradelawdevelopment[dot]com.