The Research On Opening Up Of Government Procurement Market In China

Government procurement refers to the action of government departments, social groups, public institutions and other social organizations which use public funds to purchase and lease goods, project and intellectual achievements, and employ labor or obtain service for the need of public interest. The opening of government procurement market discussed in this paper mainly focuses on the opening to the outside world, and elaborates the opening to the outside world of China's government procurement market based on "The Government Procurement Agreement" of WTO.To open China's government procurement market is not only the trend of economic globalization and trade liberalization, but also the demand for China's own economic development. But at present, there is a common worry about it. China's government procurement market is just at the very beginning stage, which is still under spreading and construction. It is far from perfect and maturity. Domestic enterprises have not built their ability to participate international competition. Compared with that of the counterparts in developed countries, their competition ability is comparatively low. Will the domestic economy still survive after China has acceded into the Agreement? Since most of the state members of WTO are still looking on and haven't signed it, what's the necessity for China to give up the last barrier that protects the domestic enterprises? Therefore, this paper puts its focus on why and how a preliminary government procurement market should open to domestic and foreign suppliers. This is not only a political issue, but also an economic and legal one.From the point of view of political science, the impact of opening government procurement market on state sovereignty is a political topic that people cannot avoid while studying the opening of market. State sovereignty is a dynamic concept; the state sovereignty thought to be absolutely inalienable traditionally should be at least divided into two major parts now: core sovereignty and marginal sovereignty. Joining in "the Government Procurement Agreement" is just a the limited alienation of state sovereignty based on the self-willingness, whose purpose lies in obtaining more extensive interests from the reciprocal international procurement market.So, we should not only prevent from seeking "to share achievements of trade liberalization" which would lead to lose or jeopardize state sovereignty, but also avoid emphasizing the state sovereignty and governmental power are inalienable so as to losethe historical opportunity of all-round development of the government procurement in China. National fundamental interests should be regarded as supreme criterion; the greatest economic benefits should be exchanged for minimum political cost. In addition, to open the government procurement market will help to promote the transformation of the government functions in China, and to suppress the corruption effectively.From the economic point of view, the opening of government procurement market can help to train the idea of modern market economy, standardize government's behavior and market behavior and operation degree, reduce government's procurement cost, lessen welfare losses, open up new export channels, and cut down and contain the corruption from origin. But at the same time, opening the government procurement market may make some industries shrink, cause short-term economy friction, influence employment and income distribution, derive some social contradictions, and aggravate the impact of fluctuation of the international economy on domestic one.So, attention should be paid to insisting on fairness and mutual benefit, moving forward gradually and progressively, optimizing the structure of industry and combining the opening principle consistent with international regulations. The idea of standard for industry selection put forward by J. S. Mill, C. F. Bastable, Kenya, K. Kojima, etc. should be adopted in order to protect the immature industry of China. While confirming the opening extent of government procurement market, GPA relevant clauses should be fully utilized to control the degree of opening. The opening object of government procurement should be confirmed rationally according to the state of development of industry and industrial policy; different threshold prices should be made reasonably in accordance with the difference between the different levels of the central authorities, local government and economic development of different areas. Through negotiating with every member state, opening entities of government procurement market should be confirmed rationally from central to local, from coastal area to the central and west regions progressively. From different purchase ways of rational utilization, Chinese enterprises should be arranged to occupy greater share of the national government procurement market. In order to realize the maximization of opening benefit of China's government procurement market, lessons can be learned from some custom and practice of foreign countries; through stipulating the local quantity of government procurement, local products shall have priority in the process of procurement; special policies relevant to balance between revenue and expenditure of foreign currency, national security, protecting the environment etc., should be adopted to restrain from or forbid foreign enterprises to enter some fields.From the legal point of view, the opening of government procurement market of inChina shall be consistent with the international standards. Relevant legislation, law enforcement mechanism and judicial protection should be perfected to bring the government procurement market into the track of legal framework.In legislative regime, a standard, unified and open legal system of government procurement should be established; the current Law on Government Procurement must be revised; the construction of necessary accessory system should be accelerated. In law enforcement regime, local protectionism should be overcome in order to promote the forming of a unified domestic government procurement market, to pursue standardized management, to realize the goal of government procurement policy, to explore practical experience, and to steadily attain the opening of the government procurement market peacefully. In the judicial regime, concern should be paid to analyze the influence of WTO to judicial remedy of the government procurement, to expand the scope of judicial review over the government procurement, and to carry out all-direction right-remedy mechanism.